PERRIN'S, 

I STORY 

-OF- 

Illinois 



BY*— 

J.NTCK PERRIN 



;H!JI 




Class T5U 

BookJE^-5__ 

CofiyrigtitK" 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



PERRFN'S 



HISTORY 



..OF.. 



ILLINOIS 



... BY ... 



J. NICK PERRIN 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two CoDies Received 

MAR 17 1906 

-J Copyrififht Entry 
-CLASS O/ XXc. No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906, by J. Nick Perrin. 



PRINTED BY 

ILLINOIS STATB BEOiaTKR, 

■ FRINOriELtt, ILL. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

This is an attempt to present the outline of Illinois 
history in such a form as to furnish a system, which will 
secure to the student a convenient index for the further- 
ance of his studies and will enable the historian to avail 
himself of the groundwork upon which he may build. 
Quite a number of voluminous historical works, contain- 
ing data concerning the various events which have trans- 
pired in this state, have been issued and these may be con- 
sulted for detailed information. This work aims simply 
at a brief arrangement, in systematic and chronological 
form, of leading events, in order to furnish a convenient 
indicator for those who are desirous of being assisted in 
pursuing their investigations systematically. The task 
of writing a full and detailed account of the happenings, 
which have occurred upon the soil of Illinois within the 
last two hundred and thirty-two years, will be left to 
more ambitious historical compilers and commentators. 
The ambition of the author of this work will be realized 
and gratified if he may succeed in infusing a spirit of re- 
search into others by indicating to them the importance 
of the history of our state through this brief recital. 
Hence, it has been deemed adequate to the scope of this 
work to give solely that important chain of incidents, 
which in itself is sufficient to enlist the attention of those 
who are interested in the history of a people who have 
contributed so largely to the progress of the world as the 
people of Illinois. 



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CHAIN OF TITLE. 

In tracing title, attention must be given to whatever 
is involved in establishing the various links which form 
the so-called chain. Original conditions, changes and sub- 
sequent contingencies, together with generally accepted 
notions, international agreements and legal interpretations 
enter into the consideration. 

In the course of the world's affairs a theory was form- 
ulated that a nation might acquire dominion over terri- 
tory through discovery, conquest or purchase. In prac- 
tice, it would seem that a general consensus of opinion 
agreed that the original occupants of a soil should be en- 
titled to its use. Where savage or barbarous nations 
have been discovered by the more civilized peoples of 
other nations, they have usually been allowed to retain 
their habitat on the territory which they occupied. 

With reference to the soil of Illinois, all three of the 
forms of acquiring dominion (discovery, conquest and 
purchase) are embraced within the chain of title, in addi- 
tion to original occupancy. The soil has been claimed by 
occupancy, by constructive discovery, by constructive 
counter-discovery, by actual discovery, by conquest and 
by purchase. Our present status is grounded on these 
with the foregoing supplemental modifications of this 
statement. 

During the progress of this work each link in the chain 
will be presented in its order. 



10 

The first link, or tlie Indian right, was legally passed 
upon in 1823 and in the opinion delivered by Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall, while referring to "the original inhabi- 
tants," is found the following statement: "They were 
admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil, with a 
legal as Avell as just claim to retain possession of it, and 
to use it according to their own discretion; but their 
rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, 
were necessarily diminished, and their power to dispose 
of the soil at their own will, to whomsoever they pleased, 
was denied by the original fundamental principle, that 
discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it." It 
was decided in this case, which is reported in 8 Wheaton 
543,^ that the right of a "tribe northwest of the Ohio" 
to make grants "to private individuals cannot be recog- 
nized in the courts of the United States. ' ' But whatever 
rights or titles the Indians may have had in the soil of 
Illinois have long ago been extinguished by cessions which 
they or their chiefs made to the Government. 

a. United States Supreme Court Report. 



11 



INDIANS.a^ 

The first inhabitants on the soil of Illinois of whom 
history makes mention were Indians ; and consisted mainly 
of a confederacy of tribes of Illini (or Illinois). There- 
fore the first link of our chain of title was formed through 
their occupancy. It is idle to speculate on how long this 
occupancy existed. Vague traditions are of no historic 
utility. The true historian must be a historical surgeon 
and must carve all matters of mere speculation and sug- 
gestion out of his consideration. The exact truth is hard 
to be obtained at best; even when the most reliable 
sources alone are considered, without entering the field of 
guesswork and tradition. As a diversion, the presenta- 
tion of the folklore or the mythology of a people may be 
allowable. But nothing less than the nearest possible 
approximation to accuracy of statement can ever be dig- 
nified into history. Hence it is out of place in this con- 
nection to surmise that the Illini were here at any particu- 
lar time antedating authentic information on the subject. 
The historic truth is that they were here in 1673. They 
were discovered then by white men. 

a. Origin of the Indians — See Hennepin's Description of 
Louisiana by Shea — 277. 



12 



SPAIN. 

Although the sea-kings of the north may have made ex- 
plorations on this Western Hemisphere in the ninth, tenth 
and eleventh centuries as claimed by some, yet, the dis- 
covery by Columbus in 1492 of land in the Bahamas is the 
generally accepted event from which is dated the begin- 
ning of American history. Through this was given to 
the Spanish government of Ferdinand and Isabella the 
first claim by right of discovery to that new world in 
which somewhere (though unknown at the time to Euro- 
peans) was Illinois. This is the second link in our chain 
of title. 



13 







X. 



16 



ENGLAND. 

When Cabot made the discovery of our Continent ui 
1498, under a commission from Henry VII of England, a 
claim thereto accrued to the English government and Illi- 
nois (though to Europeans an unknown part of the Con- 
tinent) was necessarily included. And the third link in 
our chain of title was thus formed. 



17 



D/scovEREo ay 

CABOT IH-BB 




^^ 



X 



19 



SPANISH, ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 

Soon after the discovery of this Continent, three great 
streams of discovery, settlement, colonization and civil- 
ization came from Europe to North America. The Spaii- 
ish came to the South and the English to the eastern sc^a- 
board, while the French made discoveries along the At- 
lantic coast which culminated in the Northeast where 
settlements were made by them throughout Canada, New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Besides 
these, minor streams were also contributed by other Euro- 
pean nations. Claims to various portions of the North 
American Continent were made by the respective govern ^ 
ments whose representatives made discoveries. The de- 
scriptions, which were attempted for these claims at that 
time, were of the character which accorded such scope as 
would embrace everything as far as it was practicable and 
possible to gain or hold possession. The limitations seem 
to have been natural barriers and superior human counf er- 
agencies. Lakes, rivers, oceans, prairies, forests, hunting 
grounds and mountain chains furnished in their indefinite 
way the boundaries. The tenure of the discoverer hav- 
ing been as uncertain as the extent of the discovery, the 
claim only maintained some degree of authority so long 
as it or any part of it was not disturbed or overcome by 
some one else. 

Through the enterprises and movements of the Euro- 
pean governments, it came to pass that Illinois became 
subject to claims of title by Spain, France and England, 
prior to its acquisition by Virginia and the United States. 



00 




DeSoto f MfLENOci: i56S 



,?OHCE de Leon 

lil3 



23 



SPAIN. 

In 1513 Ponce de Leon under a royal Spanish grant 
discovered Florida.^ Under the generally accepted notions 
in those days, when claims were exceedingly vague and 
indefinite both as to their scope and duration, he gave to 
the Spanish government by this act a claim to an indefin- 
ite tract which extended so far as it was in the power of 
his government to acquire possession and so long as it was 
not dispossessed by some counter claim of superior po- 
tency. Florida in this early sense may have meant every- 
thing in North America south of the Great Lakes. In 
fact this meaning may be gathered from the earlier 
writers. De la Vega, a Peruvian historian, in his history 
of ' ' The Conquest of Florida, ' ' finished in 1591, speaks ol 
it as a great country of which all the parts were not then 
known and in admitting the difficulty of description says : 
"One does not know in effect, if on the north (Septen- 
trion) Florida is bounded by land or sea." One presump- 
tion would limit its extent at the first natural boundaries, 
the Great Lakes, on the north, though possibly in those 
times there was nothing to interfere with the construction 
that might have carried the bounds to the Arctic Ocean. 
Under either presumption or construction, as the soil of 
Illinois was embraced in this indefinite tract, in our chain 
of title we record this Spanish claim as the next link. 

a. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. II, 
233. 



24 

Spain's claim was strengthened in 1541 when De Soto 
landed on the southern Mississippi river. According to 
the prevailing notions of those times, this occurrence car- 
ried with it a claim to all the country on the stream and 
its tributaries. Be Soto's indefinite claim included Illi- 
nois as it was situated both along the Mississippi and some 
of its larger tributaries. 

After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a French 
Huguenot colony had been made by Ribaut, Laudonniere 
and others at Fort Carolina, the third act in establishing 
the claim of title for Spain took place when Melende/ laid 
the foundation of St. Augustine in 1565 and proclaimed 
the Spanish king monarch of all North America. And 
though another attempt was made two years after this by 
a French expedition under De Gourges and although St. 
Augustine was demolished in 1586 by the English under 
Drake (who, hov>^ever, hastened to Virginia), yet on ac- 
count of a cessation of further attempts on the part of the 
French and English to form settlements in Florida, Illi- 
nois as a part thereof was confirmed to the Spanish claim 
by the universal acceptance of the methods adopted b^^ the 
world at that time. 

While these acts gave constructive possession, no at- 
tempt was made by the Spanish to settle on the soil of Illi- 
nois or in fact by any one else until its discovery by white 
men one hundred and sixty years after the discovery of 
Florida by Ponce de Leon. It remained undiscovered 
and unexplored until the arrival of Marquette and Jolliet 
in 1673, when actual possession was established for the 
first time by Europeans. ^ 



26 




27 



FRANCE. 

French explorations on this Continent began when 
Verrazani, a Florentine navigator, was sent out by the 
French government and in 1525 reached the coast of North 
Carolina and then explored the coast of North America 
from Florida to Newfoundland. To his indefinite dis- 
coveries was given the name of New France. Other French 
explorations followed and in 1534 Cartier reached the 
coast of Newfoundland and discovered Canada and the 
St. Lawrence river. He erected a wooden cross and 
claimed the country for France. Other Frenchmen made 
attempts at discovery and settlement in New France until 
in 1603, when a grant was made to De Chastes (which was 
afterwards given to De Monts) by Henry IV of France of 
all of North America between 40° and 46° north latitude. 
As this grant extended from ocean to ocean, it embraced 
the north half of Illinois. It was the first generally 
recognized adverse claim made against the Spanish and 
although the French made no actual settlements on the 
soil of Illinois any more than the Spanish, yet, through 
this grant northern Illinois became subject constructively 
to a claim by the French government. This vague claim 
was like its predecessor (the Spanish claim) liable to bo- 
come neutralized by some other of equal potency or en- 
tirely negatived or annihilated by one of paramount force. 
This contingency soon arose. 



30 




31 



ENGLAND. 

In 1606 a patent for the colonization of Virginia was 
granted (which was reinforced by a charter of 1609) ex- 
tending between 34° and 45° north latitude (or from Cape 
Fear to beyond Halifax)^ and indefinitely westward by 
James I of England in order to enable the planting of two 
colonies. Within these bounds from north to south the 
Plymouth and London companies founded settlements 
along the Atlantic region.^ The claim on the part of 
England included Illinois, the north part of which was 
resubjected to the English claim under the Massachusetts 
Bay Charter and the Connecticut Colony Rights, until the 
treaty of 1671 between France and the Indian tribes of the 
West, when the claim to the West (including Illinois, of 
course,) passed to France. The Massachusetts Bay grant 
extended "from sea to sea."° The English made no ex- 
plorations in the western or northwestern region and their 
claim was only one of constructive possession. 

a. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., Vol. I, 120. 

b. London Company, 34 degrees to 38 degrees. 
Plymouth Company, 41 degrees to 45 degrees. 
Intermediate district open to both. 
Bancroft, Hist. U. S., Vol. I, 120. 

c. Old South Leaflets 1, General Series No. 7. 



34 




35 



FRANCE. 

During the years that the Spanish had been engaged in 
the South and the English on the eastern coast, the 
French had been busily occupied in the Northeast, where 
they firmly planted the seeds of the New France in 
America. Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence; De 
Monts and Champlain and others established settlements 
and Quebec and Montreal and Three Rivers were founded ; 
forts and mission stations were erected and by 1670 Can- 
ada had made decided progress and was in charge of an 
Intendant who administered affairs on behalf of the 
French government at Quebec, which was the seat of gov- 
ernment for New France. The early part of the seven- 
teenth century had brought the vanguard of those mission- 
aries, who aided so materially in discovery while bent 
spiritually on the conversion of the savage tribes. Prior 
to 1670 all of the Great Lakes in the Nortlnvest had been 
visited by missionaries and fur traders. These had 
brought and sent back to Canada accounts of a great river 
in the west which had been heard, which stimulated both 
the spirit of discovery and proselyting. The missionaries, 
who were stationed near the end of Lake Superior at the 
Bay of Chegoimegon, in their communication with the In- 
dian tribes which came to the station from the south and 
west, received reports of a great river, which the Indians 
saw or crossed in their travels.^ 

a. Parkman, La Salle and the Disc, of the Great West, 30. 
Letter of Marquette to Superior, Relation of 1670, 87. 
Dablon. Relation of 1671, 24, 25. 



36 

As there had long been a search for a short route to 
China and as it was believed that somewhere in the west 
there was an outlet to the ocean, which would furnish this 
northwest passage to the Orient, the reports of this river 
were seized upon as furnishing the clew. Both the civil 
and religious authorities at Quebec saw an opportunity of 
extending their field of operations. Mesnard and Al- 
louez had built the pioneer missionary station in the ex- 
treme northwestern Lake Region. Dablon and Mar- 
quette worked in the same field. In 1670 Allouez con- 
ceived the idea of a peace conference between the repre- 
sentatives of the western Indian tribes and the Canadian 
government. In that year Perrot made his appearance 
at the Sault Sainte Marie or St. Mary's of the Falls as the 
agent for Talon, the French Intendant of Canada, and as 
the representative of the French government of Louis 
XIV, for the purpose of convoking a universal Indian Con- 
gress at that place. Perrot invited all the neighboring 
tribes and in May, 1671, the meeting was held at St. 
Mary's, where Allouez acted as interpreter. At that 
meeting a treaty was made, whereby the friendship of the 
tribes was secured as well as dominion over the Great 
West for France in return for protection promised the 
tribes by the French government, and formal possession 
was taken by French officers, while a cross of cedar was 
erected and thus through this treaty and the ceremonies 
attendant thereon, Illinois again became subject construc- 
tively to a French claim, as it was embraced in this in- 
definite cession of the Great West. Marquette, in that 
year, established the mission of St. Ignace near the pres- 
ent Mackinac and it was there that he functioned when 
the Canadian government decided to send out a voyage 



37 

of discovery for the great river which should furnish an 
outlet to the western ocean and a short northwest passage 
to China. Marquette was joined at his mission station by 
Jolliet and five companions who were sent by the Cana- 
dian government. These seven men set out from St. 
Ignace on the thirteenth of May, 1673, and began the 
journey that led through Green Bay and Fox river, 
through the villages of the Kickapoos, the Mascoutens and 
the Miamis, through marshes and swamps and across the 
portages in Wisconsin, down the Wisconsin river unti- on 
the seventeenth of June, 1673, they beheld the Mississippi. 
Then they made the journey down the newly discovered 
stream to the country of the Arkansas Indians and on July 
seventeenth, 1673, returned and passed up the Illinois 
river until they found a village of the Illinois Indians sit- 
uated on the upper Illinois river near the site of the pres- 
ent town of Utica,^ in La Salle County, and this advent of 
white men on the soil embraced within the present limits 
of our state is the beginning of the authentic period of 
Illinois history. The master-spirits of this voyage were 
Marquette and Jolliet and to them and their companions 
belongs the credit of having disclosed to the world a dis 
covery which is second to none and which has crowned 
their names with immortality.^ 

a. Mason in Breese, Early Hist, of 111., 142 (note). 

Parkman, La Salle and the Disc, of the Great West, 69, 223. 
b. Marquette's Journal, Breese, Early Hist, of 111., 235 and 
suite. 



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40 



K 




KASKASKtAS 





PEOKIA5 






\ 




/cfiHOKlAS 



'( 



METCHIGAMEA 



41 



THE ILLINOIS INDIANS. 

When Marquette, Jolliet and their companions arrived 
at the village of the Illinois Indians in 1673, they found 
it in possession of the Kaskaskia tribe which was a branch 
of the Illinois confederacy. 

The Illinois confederacy (known as the Illini)^ was 
composed of five tribes, viz. : Metchigamis, Kaskaskias, 
Peorias, Cahokias, Tammarois. 

The habitat of the Metchigamis^ was originally west of 
the Mississippi and they really became a part of the con- 
federacy by adoption. They have impressed their name 
on the lake and state of Michigan. 

The habitat of the Kaskaskias was the region between 
Lake Michigan and Lake Peoria and they have impressed 
their name on the village and river of Kaskaskia and the 
mound^ in Clinton County. 

The habitat of the Peorias was the region of Lake 
Peoria and they have impressed their name on the lake 
and city of Peoria. 

a. Brown, Hist, of 111., 115. 

b. Beckwith, The 111. and Ind. Indians. 
Charlevoix, 296. 

Moses, 111. Hist, and Stat., Vol. 1, 58. 
Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, 248. (Map.) 
Breese. Hist, of 111., 78. (Map.) 

c. Dr. E. A. Woelk in "The Dental Brief," September, 1905. 



42 

The habitat of the Cahokias was the region of Cahokia 
and the American Bottom^ and they have impressed their 
name on the village and creek and mound of Cahokia. 

The habitat of the Tammarois was the region of south- 
eastern Illinois and they impressed their name on the town 
of Tamaroa. 

The Illinois confederacy never rose to any great dis- 
tinction. The most important thing which it accomplished 
was to impress a name upon the river and state of Illinois. 
It may be estimated that its population numbered more 
than ten thousand when discovered by the French. When 
Membre was among them at the close of 1679 and the be- 
ginning of 1680, he found ''seven or eight thousand souls" 
at their principal village.^ They were called Illini, which 
term has been given various shades of meaning, the gen- 
eral signification being, however, that they were superior 
men;^ though their superiority, if they ever possessed 
any, was not shown in any marked degree during the 
period of authentic history. They served mainly as the 
prey of the fierce eastern tribes, who made occasional in- 
cursions until ultimately the Illinois were decimated and 
the fragmentary tribes were consolidated and found a 
refuge for a time in the southwestern portion of 
the state in the American Bottom. While the Kas- 

a. The American Bottom is a low tract extending from Alton 

to Chester and from the Mississippi river to the Bluffs 
on the east and contains something like four hundred 
and fifty square miles or about 288,000 acres. 

b. Le Clercq, Estab. of the Faith (Shea), Vol. n, 117, 132. 

c. Beckwith, The 111. and Ind. Indians. 

Marquette's Journal in Breese, Early Hist, of 111., 251. 



43 

kaskias were originally on the Illinois river above Peoria, 
yet, in 1700^ on account of the fear of the eastern Indians 
and their frequent depredations and the harassments of 
their neighboring tribes they started to migrate with 
Father Marest, their mission priest, to southern Illinois, 
where they finally settled near the junction of the Kas- 
kaskia and Mississippi rivers. All the remnants of the 
other tribes also became merged into this Kaskaskia fam- 
ily. By 1736, they were in the southern portion about 
Kaskaskia and an enumeration of that year shows that 
they had only about six hundred warriors.^ Later, even 
the remnants became almost extinguished ; one of the main 
causes for the almost utter extinction of the Illinois by the 
other Indians having been the murder of Pontiac by an 
Illinois Indian in 1769 at Cahokia. Thomas Hutchins, 
whose "Topographical Description, etc.," was published 
in 1778, in an appendix, gives a list of tribes with the 
number of their fighting men and among them he places 
the Kaskaskias, Peorias and Metchigamis at three hun- 
dred.^ According to Governor Ileynolds,<^ in 1800 there 
were about one hundred and fifty warriors of the whole 
confederacy left with a half-breed by the name of Ducoign 
or DuQuoin for their chief. Beckwith,^ however, quotes 
from a letter from General Harrison to the Secretary of 
War from which it appears that when he became Governor 
of the Indiana Territory (which included Illinois) in 1800, 

a. Mason quoted in Breese, Early Hist, of 111., 142 (in note.) 

b. Beckwith, The 111. and Ind. Indians, 105. 

c. Hutchins' Topographical Description, 67. 

d. Reynolds, Pioneer Hist., 10. 

e. Beckwith, The 111. and Ind. Indians, 106. 



44 

there were only thirty warriors. Basing the calculation 
on one warrior to every five individuals and applying it 
to the latter statement, it might be inferred that Reynolds 
really meant to give the whole number when he spoke of 
one hundred and fifty. After the state was admitted into 
the Union and their lands were ceded to the government, 
the handful of Indians that was left was removed to the 
Indian Territory. 

Like all Indians the Illinois were somewhat migratory 
in their habits. Although their usual habitat was per- 
haps the soil of our state, yet, they lived west of the Mis- 
sissippi river at times and in the days when Marquette 
was stationed at Allouez' mission of St. Esprit near the 
end of Lake Superior, they brought him the news of the 
great river of which he was destined to become the dis- 
coverer later.^ Some of them drifted about and dwelt in 
Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas prior to the settlement of 
most of them on the Illinois river. In their voyage down 
the Mississippi, Marquette and the discoverers visited 
some Illinois on the western side near the Des Moines 
river, where we find them marked on the map purporting 
to be Marquette 's, though also claimed to be a contempor- 
aneous Jesuit map ; and a ' ' Metchigamea ' ' village is also 
marked thereon in the Arkansas country.^ 

Tonti's account,^ as he saw them in 1679, does not give 
them a character for good morals. 

a. Winsor, Cartier to Fronterxac, 201, 234. 
Jesuit Relation 1670-1 (Dablon). 

b. Marquette's Journal, Breese, Early Hist, of 111., 264. 
Breese, Early Hist, of 111., 78 (map.) 

Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, 248 (map). 

c. Tonti, 58. 



45 

Father Zenobius Meinbre, who was among them as 
early as 1679, found them possessing a characteristic which 
he describes as ''thievish." He also represents them as 
"wandering" and "idle. "a- 

La Hontan wrote from Missilimakinac in 1689 concern- 
ing a trip which he undertook on September twenty-fourth 
of the previous year during v>rhich he explored the Wis- 
consin, Mississippi, Illinois and other rivers. On April 
ninth, 1689, he entered the Illinois from the Mississippi 
and sailed up its stream till he came to the village of the 
Illinese (as he calls them), where he arrived on April 
twentieth, 1689. He tells of how he engaged four hun- 
dred of them to transport baggage, saying they were ' ' in- 
courag'd by a Bribe of a great Roll of Brazil Tobacco, an 
hundred pound weight of Powder, two hundred weight of 
Ball, and some Arms."^ In a discourse on the savages 
of North America he says ' ' The Illinese, the Oumamis, and 
the Outagamins: with some other adjacent Nations are of 
an indifferent size, and run like Greyhounds."^ And as 
bearing on this in another portion of the discourse, he tells 
how they rely on this characteristic in case of danger: 
"presuming that in case of a discovery, they can easily 
save themselves by their good Heels. ' '^ 

Father Charlevoix, who visited the country of the Illi- 
nois Indians less than one half a century after its discov- 
ery, says in a letter w^ritten by him in 1720 : ' ' The Illinois 

a. Le Clercq, Establishment of the Faith, Vol. II, 134. (Shea.) 

b. La Hontan, New Voyag-es to North America, Vol. I, 135. 

c. La Hontan, New Voyages to North America, Vol. II, 4. 
d- La Hontan, New Voyages to North America, Vol. II, 77. 



46 

have the Character of being cunning Thieves." And he 
tells what precautions he took concerning his baggage 
during his stay at the Rock^- (Le Rocher) on the upper 
Illinois river and how in spite of the exercise of due vigil- 
ance he missed ' ' a Gun, and some Trifles ' ' at his departure 
which he never recovered.^ 

a. Starved Rock. Accounts, which may receive some atten- 
tion from a sentimental standpoint, have furnished a story for the 
Starved Rock. It is told that aftei Pontiac's assassination at 
Cahokia in 1769 by a half-breed Peoria Indian, Pontiac's Indian 
friends, in order to avenge his death, banded together for the pur- 
pose of accomplishing the extermination of the Illinois tribes. 
That having been relentlessly pursued everywhere else, the Illinois 
resolved to make a final stand at the site of their ancient village; 
but, after a desperate resistance of some days, retreated during a 
blinding storm in the night to the rock across the river, whereon 
the warriors succumbed to starvation and death in a final contest 
rather than surrender to their foes. It has been told how only 
one warrior escaped to tell the story. But, from an account re- 
ceived by Caton from an old Pottawatomie chief (Meachelle), 
"eleven of the most athletic warriors, in the darkness and con- 
fusion of the fight, broke through the besieging lines." While the 
data in the foregoing chapter do not bear out the idea that this 
was the ending of the existence of the Illinois nation, the story has 
at least served to impress a name on a very interesting spot. 

b. Charlevoix, 283. 



47 



FIRST WHITES AND FIRST STATION IN ILLINOIS. 

Marquette; Jolliet and five companions were the first 
white men to discover and reach the soil of Illinois, so far 
as historic evidence shows. Surmises of earlier arrivals 
lack positive proof for substantiation. 

Marquette was born at Laon, France, in 1637. He was 
educated for the priesthood and joined the Jesuits. In 
1666, at the age of twenty-nine, as a missionary, he came 
to join the colony of New France on the western Conti- 
nent. He seems to have been prompted in his coming by 
a strong desire to convert the Indians. After spending 
several years among the tribes located in the region about 
Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, he finally established 
the mission of St. Ignace in 1671 and here was joined in 
1673 by Jolliet, a merchant from Quebec, and a small 
company who were sent on a voyage of discovery for a 
short passage to the western ocean. 

Jolliet was born at Quebec in 1645. He too was edu- 
cated by the Jesuits for the priesthood but went into the 
fur trade. When he joined Marquette in 1673 he was 
twenty-eight and Marquette was thirty-six. 

These young men became the leaders of that expedition 
which resulted in the discovery of the northern Mississippi 
river and the country of the Illinois. On their return trip 
from their exploration of the Mississippi, as narrated in a 
former chapter, they turned in at the mouth of the Illinois 
river w^hich furnished a shorter route to the Lakes. After 
having voyaged sixty-five leagues, it was on this river that 
they found a village of the Illinois Indians which Mar- 



48 

quette in his journal calls Kiiilka. It was also known as 
La Yantum. Jolliet called it Kaskaskia. The name Kas- 
kaskia was retained by the white villages that became the 
successors of the Indian town — one planted on the site of 
the Indian to^vn on the upper Illinois river near Utica and 
its successor, which was located for nearly two centuries 
about seven miles above the junction of the Mississippi 
and Kaskaskia rivers (and between them) until the cur- 
rent of the Mississippi changed and through its encroach- 
ments washed awaj^ a great portion of the village and un- 
til its main channel flowed through the channel of the Kas- 
kaskia and the remainder of the village was so endanger- 
ed as to require its removal. 

The Indian village found hy Marquette and his com- 
panions has been variously called Kuilka, La Vantum 
and Kaskaskia (or Cascaschia, as Membre puts it ) and 
its population has also been variously estimated. Many 
of the Illinois Indians, who were driven from their 
original seat, near Lake Michigan, by the Iroquois to the 
west of the Mississippi, had returned to the east and were 
located on the Illinois. In this village Marquette says 
he found seventy-four cabins. This was in 1673. Henne- 
pin, who arrived towards the close of December of 1679, 
found it situated at 40° latitude in a marshy x)lain on the 
right bank of the river and containing four hundred and 
sixty cabins, each cabin four or five fires, each fire one 
or two families.^ Father Zenobius Membre speaks of 
it as ''The village of the Ilinois Cascaschia, situated 
west of the bottom of Lake Dauphin, a little southwest, 

a. Hennepin, Description of Louisiana, 153. (Shea.) 



40 

at about 41° latitude." This was in the beginning of 1680 
and he says it was composed of ''seven or eight thousand 
souls. "^ Marquette in his journal speaks of the kind 
treatment accorded him at this village and the promise ex- 
tracted from him to return. On leaving he was conducted 
by Indian escorts to Lake Michigan (Lake Illinois as it 
was then called) and reached Green Bay at the close of 
September where he remained the following winter and 
summer. He left in October 1674 for the Illinois, reached 
the Chicago river in November but could go no farther on 
account of enfeebled health. His two companions, who 
had come with him from the Green Bay mission, built a 
cabin near this river and spent the winter. On March 
thirtieth, 1675, they left and reached the Des Plaines river 
and floated down to its junction with the Illinois river and 
then down to the Kaskaskias. In April, near Easter, they 
were received in grand council on a large meadow and in 
the midst of several thousand people (chiefs, warriors, wo- 
men and children had turned out) established the mission 
of the Immaculate Conception, which has continued to this 
day and is known by the same name. Shortly 
after, Marquette left for his home mission, but died 
on the way on the eastern shore of Lake Michi- 
gan.^ AUouez was appointed his successor.^ In 1693 
Father James Gravier built a chapel in the fort 
of the Starved Rock. A record of baptisms dating 
back to 1695 is among the archives of the present church 
of Kaskaskia. From this it appears that in 1695 Gravier 

a. LeClercq, Establishment of the Faith, Vol. IT, 132. (Shea.) 

b. Parkman, La Salle and the Disc, of the Great West, 67. 

c. Winsor, Cartler to Frontenac, 250, 266, 290, 323. 



50 

baptized a child named Peter Aco. From this baptismal 
record it also seems that from 1695 until the removal of 
the Kaskaskia Indians, Fathers Gravier, Bineteau and 
Marest functioned at this mission. About the latter part 
of 1700 the Indians around the Kaskaskia mission, having 
become tired of the constant harassments from the other 
Indians, resolved to leave that portion of the country and 
Father Marest, who officiated there, after endeavoring to 
dissuade them from their project, finally joined them in 
their migration to the south which resulted in the estab- 
lishment of the mission of the Immaculate Conception be- 
tween the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers about seven 
miles north of the present city of Chester. Here it remain- 
ed with varying fortunes for nearly two centuries. It 
gradually grew into a considerable village which served as 
the early entrepot for trade between Louisiana, in the 
south, and New France, in the north; which became the 
capital of the territory of Illinois and the first capital of 
the state and was recognized in the halcyon period un- 
der the French Commandants as the "Paris of the West." 
On account of its proximity to the Mississippi, the 
constant washings of the waters of the river in their 
attempt to find a straighter channel, caused the vil- 
lage to suffer much in later years. After the Mis- 
sissippi broke across the country and found its channel 
in the Kaskaskia river so that the main current began to 
flow through the Kaskaskia on the east side of the village, 
an island was formed, the head of which gradually 
washed away under the pressure of the waters in their 
still further attempt to straighten the channel until the 
safety of the buildings became endangered. Acres of land 
were swept away, gardens were washed into the stream 



61 

and buildings were loosened from their foundations, until 
the work of devastation thus wrought by nature impressed 
the village priest, Father L. W. Ferland, with the import- 
ance of making an attempt for the preservation of this 
olden Illinois settlement. And to his efforts may be at- 
tributed, in a large measure, the existence of the new 
Kaskaskia which has been established farther south on the 
lower part of the island thus formed as above stated. The 
olden cemetery, in which the pioneer dead had been 
buried from time to time for a period dating back nearly 
two hundred years, having been in danger of watery de- 
struction, the legislature of 1891 appropriated $10,000 for 
the removal of the dead. Under this act, Father L. W. 
Ferland, Hon. Charles Becker and Judge Cyrus Cook were 
appointed commissioners and entrusted with the removal. 
They selected C. M. Wheeler as secretary for the commis- 
sion, bought twenty acres of land situated on top of the 
hill on the east of the river opposite Kaskaskia near the 
ruined earthworks of an old fort and let the contract for 
boxes and reinterments. The number of boxes conveyed 
to the new cemetery amounted to thirty-eight hundred. 
Some of these boxes contained a whole family. The south 
part of the cemetery (which is Catholic) contains fifteen 
hundred unknown, while in the north part (devoted to the 
public generally) there are four hundred and fifty more 
unknown. It is a somewhat remarkable fact or 
coincidence that while this first mission was estab- 
lished by an envoy from Canada (Father Mar- 
quette) after two centuries of its existence, its affairs 
should be wound up, prior to its removal to its pres- 
ent site, where it has taken up its abode as a new Kas- 
kaskia, by another Canadian priest, Father Ferland, who 



52 

by nativity is a Canadian and a near kinsman to the Abbe 
Ferland, a distinguished Canadian churchman and his- 
torian. 

In this connection it may be stated that about the time 
of the removal of Kaskaskia from the northern Illinois 
river to southern Illinois, Cahokia began its existence. 
From the letter of St. Cosme,^ a missionary priest, it ap- 
pears that he made a voyage from upper Lake Michigan 
to the site of Chicago and down the Illinois river to the 
Mississippi and the day after reaching the Mississippi (or 
on December 7, 1899) he came to the village of the Tam- 
marois. He learned at this village that the Indians knew 
nothing of any priest except Father Gravier. The Tam- 
marois village was probably on the site of the present ham- 
let of Cahokia as the Tammarois and Cahokia Indians 
were neighboring tribes belonging to the same confeder- 
acy (the mini) and practically occupied the same habitat. 
It follows from this that Cahokia as a settlement or even 
as a mission station does not antedate the year 1700. 
There are indications,^ however, which warrant the state- 
ment that the approximate historic truth is that its begin- 
ning may be said to commence with 1700 and hence its 
founding is about coetaneous with that of the Kaskaskia 
of southern Illinois. 

a. Mason in Breese, Early Hist, of HI., 143 (in note). 

b. Le Sueur's Journal. 



53 



DISCOVERY OF COAL IN ILLINOIS. 

After the discovery of Illinois, Jolliet went back to 
Canada and his report stimulated other adventurers. In 
less than a decade came the bold enterprise of La Salle. 
Through letters patent granted by Louis XIV, king of 
France, May twelfth, 1678, he was permitted ' ' to endeavoi 
to discover the western part of our country of New 
France, and for the execution of this enterprise, to con- 
struct forts wherever you shall deem it necessar^^"^ 
An expedition was organized that year with La Salle in 
command and Tonti as his lieutenant. In the company 
were Hennepin, Ribourde and Membre, friars of the Recol- 
lect order. This expedition went from Canada and passed 
through the St. Lawrence river and the Lakes until they 
reached the country of the Illinois toward the close of 
1679 after various hardships encountered, the most im- 
portant of which was the matter of building their vessel, 
the Griffin, and its subsequent loss as well as other difficul- 
ties with which they had to contend. 

During this visit of La Salle's party to the country of 
the Illinois (1679) Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollect mis- 
sionary, was with the party. And he makes the first his- 
torical mention of coal in this region. During their expedi- 
tion from Canada, after having arrived in the Miami coun- 
try and while they were seeking for a portage by which 
they could reach the Illinois river, La Salle, while explor- 
ing the 

a. Breese, Early Hist, of 111., Appendix B, 272. 



54 

country, became separated from the rest and as he did not 
return as soon as they expected, searching parties were 
sent after him. On the following day Hennepin and two 
others went out again and in the afternoon found him, 
"His hands and face all black with the coals and the wood 
that he had lighted during the night which was cold."^ 
This was in the Miami country, a short distance from the 
head- waters of the Illinois river. After giving an account 
of how they reached the Illinois he says: "There are 
mines of coal, slate, iron, and lumps of pure red copper 
which are found in various places indicate that there are 
mines and perhaps other metals and minerals, which will 
one day be discovered."^ These vague references would 
furnish no definite index to the location of the coal fields 
hinted at beyond the inference that they were somewhere 
in northern Illinois. When amplified by the testimony 
of later writers it becomes possible to designate the loca- 
tion with greater certainty. 

On the twenty-seventh of September, 1720, Father 
Charlevoix arrived at the junction of the Kankakee 
and Illinois rivers. Lower down on the Illinois at 
its junction with a river which he mentions as being 
called the Pisticoui and which flows from the country of 
the Mascoutens, he speaks of a fall called la Char- 
boniere "because they find many Coals in its Environs. "° 
(This was in what is now La Salle County.) 

From Kennedy's Journal*^ it appears that on the sixth 

a. Hennepin, Description of Louisiana, 137 (Shea). 

b. Hennepin, Description of Louisiana, 151 (Shea). 

c. Charlevoix, 281. 

d. Kennedy's Journal in Hutchins' Top. Des. 56, 61. 



55 

of August, 1773, he passed the junction of the Illinois and 
Mackinaw rivers where he found some pieces of coal and 
he says: ''I was induced to walk up the river a few 
miles, tho ' not far enough, to reach a coal mine. In many 
places I also found clinkers, which inclined me to think 
that a coal mine, not far distant, was on fire, and I have 
since heard, there was." On the ninth of August they^ 
passed the Vermilion and one mile farther, the water be- 
ing too low for the boat, the boat was left and they went 
by land. On the tenth of August they came to the junc- 
tion of the Illinois and the Fox (Pisticoui). Proceediiig 
fifteen miles farther, they stopped at an encampment of 
French traders on an island, but, receiving no informa- 
tion about the copper mine which they were hunting, thej 
started back on the eleventh for their boat which was about 
forty-five miles away according to his computation. That 
night they got within nine miles of their boat. On the 
morning of the twelfth, they went three miles farther 
down and being then six miles from their boat (which was 
left one mile above the mouth of the Vermilion) they were 
at this point seven miles above the mouth : which is near 
the present town of La Salle. This point must have been 
near Utica, the site of the old Kaskaskia Indian town. 
Kennedy says : ' ' On the north-western side of this river 
is a coal mine, that extends for half a mile along the mid- 
dle of the bank of the river, which is high." 

In a book issued in 1823, Beck says : ''Coal is found in 
great abundance in different parts of the state; it is 

a. Several Coureurs de Bois (forest rangers) were with him. 

b. Beck, Gazetteer of 111. and Mo., 41. 



56 

of a good quality, and is very valuable on account of the 
scarcity of timber. ' ' 

In the interval of time between Hennepin's account 
and the present, the coal industry of this state has grown 
to such extensive proportions that it is one of our leading 
industries. From a summary furnished by the Secretary 
of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics it appears that 
in 1905 there were 990 mines in the state which produced 
37,183,374 tons and this product was secured by the 
efforts of 59,230 employees. Fifty-six of the one hundred 
and two counties of the state contributed toward this 
production. 



57 



FIRST FORT IN ILLINOIS. 

In January, 1680, La Salle's company was among the 
tribes near Peoria where they built a fort which they 
called Creve Coeur. From Hennepin's map it would 
appear that it was located on the east side of the river.^ 
Leclercq,^ who obtained his information from Father 
Membre's diary, speaks of the location as ''a little emi- 
nence," while Hennepin^ calls it ''a little mound," and 
La Sailed calls it "a little hillock," and Tonti^ calls it "a 
height" near to the river. It has been pretty definitely 
settled where this site is and on the strength of the pre- 
ponderance of the views of the later historians, a monu- 
ment has been established on the spot at Wesley City in 
Tazewell County by the Peoria Chapter of the Daughters 
of the American Revolution.^ The original fort was per- 
haps not a very pretentious structure but it served as a 
defense against hostile Indian attacks. Hennepin 
describes how the eminence was cut down steep at 
the sides and how they supported the earth with timber 
and then placed a stockade around it while the 

a. Hennepin, Description of Louisiana (Map) (Shea). 

b. LeClercq, Establishment of the Faith, Vol. II, 123 (Shea). 

c. Hennepin, Description of Louisiana, 176 (Shea). 

d. I>a Salle in Margry, Vol. II, 48, 49. 

e. Tonti, 61. 

f. Ada Greenwood McLaughlin, 111. Hist. Soc. Pub. 7, (1902), 

179 and suite. 



58 

summit was left in its natural shape except that they 
placed a raised wall of earth at the edge. The men were 
provided with barracks in two angles and the priests had 
a cabin where they lodged and where they held services. 
They also had a forge for the blacksmith and officers' 
quarters where La Salle and Tonti were placed in the 
middle of this fortified post. 



60 




■"^'rVc?^^ 



61 



FURTHER FRENCH OCCUPATION. 

After La Salle's party arrived among the tribes near 
Peoria in 1680, the building of a new vessel was started 
for the Mississippi river voyage but on account of the 
lack of certain articles necessary for its construction La 
Salle went to the settlements in Canada and left Tonti in 
charge with instructions to move the fort farther up. 
About this time troubles were going on between the Iro- 
quois and the Illinois. Tonti left while La Salle was away 
and when La Salle reached Creve Coeur again he found 
it abandoned. He continued and reached the Mississippi 
in December, 1680, but went back to the Miami country 
in 1681, from where he crossed back into the Illinois coun- 
try and hearing of Tonti went and found him at Mack- 
inaw on the Lakes. The following year La Salle went 
west again. This was his third attempt. He and his 
companions went down the Illinois in canoes. The vessel 
at Creve Coeur was not yet built and in fact it was never 
finished. On February sixth, La Salle and his compan- 
ions were again on the Mississippi river. They went 
down its current until they reached its mouth on 
April ninth, 1682, and setting up a cross on that day 
took possession of the country in the name of Louis 
XIV and in his honor called the country, bordering on 
the stream and its tributaries, Louisiana. This Louisiana 
embraced an indefinite scope from the Gulf to the 
Lakes or to where the indefinite bounds of New 
France extended ; and becoming a part of New France be- 



62 

came subject to the sway of the French-Canadian govern- 
ment. On the return up the river to Arkansas, La Salle 
fell sick and the priest Membre stayed with him while 
Tonti w^ent ahead to report the news. La Salle later joined 
Tonti at St. Ignace. Then Tonti was sent to found a 
colony in the Illinois country and La Salle joined him and 
they built Fort St. Louis (Le Rocher) at the "Starved 
Rock."^ La Salle was commissioned again in 1683 and 
made governor of Louisiana. In 1685 his expedition by 
sea landed near Matagorda Bay or Galveston Bay, having 
missed the mouth of the Mississippi which he sought. He 
searched in vain and was assassinated in 1687 near Trin- 
ity river. After the fort was built at "Starved Rock," 
the Indians settled their villages around it and in 1684 
Tonti *s party and these friendly Indians repelled an attack 
upon it made by two hundred Iroquois. Some historians 
may try to use this isolated instance, with the semblance 
of victory, as testimony in favor of the prowess of the 
Illinois Indians, but, this defense can hardly be cited as 
more than a scintilla of evidence in behalf of a nation 
which was worsted so often and in this case became the 
beneficiaries of a protective European influence whose 
force under a trained leadership achieved the result. In 
1686 Tonti went with forty men to the Gulf of Mexico 
in search of La Salle. It has been conjectured by 
some, and so stated by historians, who relied too im- 
plicitly on the guesswork of others, that Tonti ^s fol- 
lowers during this search or on their return settled 
the villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia in southern Illinois. 
There is no warrant for such a belief. A later trip^ 

a. Parkman, La Salle and the Disc, of the Great West, 294. 

b. Mason's reference to St. Cosme's Letter, Breese, Efarly 

Hist, of III., 142 (note). 



63 

in which Tonti took a part or acted as a guide may have 
served to confuse the inference on this head. These 
stations, in their present locations, were not in existence 
until about the year 1700. ' This date is the nearest ap- 
proach to accuracy that can be given as stated in a pre- 
vious chapter. 

In 1712 came the grant to Crozat. In the letters- 
patent granted to Anthony Crozat by the king of France 
dated September fourteenth, 1712, reference is made to 
the commission given La Salle in 1683 by which he was 
''to undertake a discovery of the countries and lands 
which are situated in the northern part of America be- 
tween New France and New Mexico ' ' and the royal decree 
expresses a belief, based on the success of La Salle 's enter- 
prise, that communication might be established between 
New France and the Gulf of Mexico by means of the riv- 
ers. Inasmuch as the French government had been dis- 
tracted by the war in Europe, there had been no chance 
to continue these enterprises and hence the matter re- 
mained in abeyance until a more favorable time — until it 
was decided to make this grant to Crozat. In these 
letters-patent the country is officially called Louisiana. 
Crozat is granted the commerce of the country for fifteen 
years and the territory in which he is to carry on trade 
is described as bounded by New Mexico on the one hand 
and the English Carolina on the other. The grant em- 
braced various rivers, particularly the Mississippi from 
the sea as far as the Illinois country, the Ohio and the 
Missouri, with the minor tributaries of these great 
streams, with whatever bordered along their courses; 
thereby confirming the claim of France laid to 
this country which extended from the Gulf to New 
France. The articles provided that all of the afore- 



64 

said be under the name of the government of Louisiana 
and be subordinate to the general government in New 
France, providing further that all the lands derived from 
the Illinois be united with the general government of New 
France whenever required, with the right to enlarge the 
government of Louisiana whenever deemed fit. These 
letters also carried with them permission to mine and hunt 
for precious stones; and further, the property right was 
given him to all factories which he might erect and to 
lands which he might cause to be cultivated. The customs 
of Paris were to become the law for the guidance of this 
new province of Louisiana. Provision was made upon 
what terms he might enjoy these privileges. The forego- 
ing privileges were the principal ones embraced in the 
grant except that it provided that if he deemed it proper 
for the culture of his plantations he might employ blacks 
and for this purpose might send a ship every year to trade 
for them on the coast of Guinea and in turn might sell 
them to the inhabitants of the Louisiana colony. Crozat, 
being disappointed in the pursuit of mineral treasure, af- 
ter nearly five years of prospecting, willingly surrendered 
his rights under this patent in 1717. Although the search 
for mineral treasure proved somewhat disappointing, yet, 
the energy employed during these adventures, the influx of 
migration and the stimulus given to primitive trade, serv- 
ed to lay the foundation for the early time settlements, 
which a few years thereafter became centers of trade and 
population. Although Laws' organization of the Company 
of the West or Royal India Company, with property rights 
in the soil of Louisiana, ended in failure with the explosion 
of what was known as ''The Mississippi Scheme'' yet 

during the 



65 

life of these grants beginnings were made which served as 
foundations for the upbuilding of the Louisiana country. 

Although Crozat had not realized his expectations, it 
was decided by a council of state at Versailles that the 
colony of Louisiana should be continued and as it was the 
opinion of this council that the undertaking was too great 
for any individual enterprise, they concluded to give the 
administration to a company and this resulted in the crea- 
tion of the Western Company or Royal India Company. 
The charter of this company was given its force by the 
French Parliament September sixth, 1717.^ Prior to this 
time the settlers had held title to their lots and gardens 
and farms and pasture lands through Indian grants and 
possession and actual cultivation and occupation of the 
soil but thenceforth a more definite system was inaugu- 
rated and yet one which in after years became a source of 
much troublesome litigation on account of its inadequacy 
when put to the test, though it served its purpose in its 
own time. 

This Royal India Company made many grants of land 
to applicants for the purposes of cultivation. The 
earliest records go back as far as 1722 and were made 
by Boisbriant, the first commandant in Illinois, on be- 
half of the king and the Royal India Company by Des 
Ursins, the principal commissary. One of the largest 
grants was made June fourteenth, 1723, to Philip Fran- 
cois Renault,^ Director-General of the company's min- 
ing explorations. He was given a league square in the 
southwest part of the present county of Monroe and 
about fourteen thousand acres at Peoria. 

a. Gayarre, History of Louisiana, Vol. I, 192. 

b. It is stated in connection with these mining operations 

that Renault brought "five hundred slaves." 



66 

The early French settlers settled in villages. Around 
their houses they enclosed a lot of ground which they used 
for garden and stable purposes. Their farms extended 
from the villages out over the adjacent prairie or bottom 
lands and were narrow strips which extended from the 
villages to the river or creek on the one side and the bluffs 
on the other. The inhabitants thus lived in communities 
which afforded mutual protection while at home and also 
while working in their fields. These farms were known 
as ' ' The Common Fields. ' ' In addition to this there was 
a ^'Common" which furnished them in common with pas- 
turage and fuel. On June twenty-second, 1722, these in- 
dividual and common rights were confirmed to the inhabi- 
tants by Boisbriant, the king^s lieutenant of Louisiana, 
and by Des Ursins for the Royal India Company. Bois- 
briant, who was second in official rank in the Louisiana 
government by virtue of his station, was the commandant 
of the Illinois portion of the country until he was called 
to the post of acting governor when Bienville the gov- 
ernor was called to France, Under Bienville as governor 
the planting of New Orleans was set on foot in 1718. The 
population of Louisiana then was about fifteen hundred. 
Following the planting of New Orleans in 1718 came the 
planting of Fort Chartres in the Illinois country and in 
1719 the village of St. Phillipe upon what became the 
Renault grant within a few miles of the fort and also the 
village of Ste. Anne near the fort. On a tract containing 
several thousand acres granted to Boisbriant the village 
of Prairie du Rocher commenced. 

In 1721 when Charlevoix visited the Kaskaskia and 



67 

Fort Chartres region, in a letter of that time written by 
him, he has the following to say: "The French are here 
pretty much at their Ease. A Fleming, a Servant of the 
Jesuits, has taught them how to sow Wheat,^ and it 
thrives very well. They have some Horned Cattle and 
Fowls." He also speaks well of the manner in which the 
Illinois Indians cultivate the lands and mentions that 
their wives spin Buffalo's wool and make it into gowns 
which they sew together ''with the Thread made of the 
Sinews of Roe-Bucks." 

When Bienville w^as called to France, Boisbriant as- 
sumed the post of acting governor of Louisiana and Des 
Liettes became commandant of the Illinois country until 
he was succeeded by St. Ange de Belle Rive in 1730 who 
maintained the post till 1734. In 1732 however the Royal 
India Company surrendered its privileges to the crown 
and a new government was instituted for Louisiana which 
took it from New France and included Illinois as a de- 
pendency. After the surrender of the patent of the 
Royal India Companj^ and the consolidation of the Illinois 
country with the Louisiana province came a new order of 
government. Over the province there was appointed (by 
the king) a governor, an intendant and a royal council. 
The governor had power to appoint a commandant over 
the Illinois country. Now followed the regime of the 
French commandants. 

D'Artaguettet> 1734-36 

De La Buissoniere^ 1736-40 

St. Clair , 1740-43 

a. Charlevoix 293. — Census 1900 111. produced 19,795,500 

bushels. 

b. Wounded, captured and burned to death with companions 

in expedition against Chickasaws in Mississippi. 

c. Also led a Chickasaw expedition. 



68 

De Bertel 1743-49 

St. Clair 1749-51 

Makartya 1751-60 

Neyon de Villiers 1760-64 

St. Ange de Belle Rive 1764-65 

These commandants ruled till 1765 when after the 
French-Indian war under the treaty between France and 
England the Illinois country was transferred to the British. 
The Illinois country, as it had been known all along up to 
this time, (on account of it having been the country of the 
Illinois Indians) was a part of the French possessions 
known as Louisiana for eighty-three years from 1682 till 
1765. During the French regime other settlements sprang 
up. Across the Mississippi river in 1764 St. Louis and 
Ste. Genevieve began ; on this side in 1760 Prairie du Pont 
commenced near Cahokia (which place then had a mill for 
corn and planks) while in the north were the Wisconsin 
and lake region settlements. A considerable trade was 
carried on between these settlements. 

As the regime of the commandants was largely in the 
nature of the administration of affairs in a military way, 
a judge was also appointed by the authorities in New Or- 
leans who was to exercise a sort of supervision over the 
business affairs of this dependency. If he had any exten- 
sive judicial powers granted him they seem never to have 
been exercised to any greater extent than to keep a general 
oversight over the civil officer who was stationed part 
of the time at Kaskaskia and part of the time at Fort 

a. Fort Chartres was rebuilt, improved and enlarged under 
Maka^ty's Administration. 



69 

Chartres or the village of New Chartres. This civil officer 
appears to have been a sort of prothonotary or as he de- 
scribes himself "a registrar of the bench." He kept a 
register in the French language which is still in existence 
belonging to the archives of St. Clair County .^ The 
entries cover a period from 1737 to 1769 and it is called 
"Registre des Insinuations des Donations aux Siege des 
Illinois." It is a record of gifts by will, marriage con- 
tracts and the like. At the end of each year there ap- 
pears subjoined an act of approval by a representative of 
the marine department and the civil bench. The register 
is interesting in the way of showing that there appeared 
before the local functionary inhabitants of Cahokia, Can- 
ada, Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, 
St. Phillipe, Yincennes. It also shows the existence and 
status of slavery in the early days in Illinois. The slaves 
were negroes and Indians. As samples among the many 
recitals on this point it appears that in 1751 Mr. and Mrs. 
Bourbonnais gave to Pierre Aubuchon, who was their son- 
m-law, an old negro slave, who, in the language of the 
transfer, could only do the ordinary kitchen work and 
chores. In 1755 Francois Lacroix gave his property to 
his children on condition that they maintain him. His 
slaves are enumerated as one Indian man, two Indian 
women, and one little Indian girl aged seven years. The 
last entries in the book are of instruments dated in June, 
1768. 

a. When the original St. Clair County was divided into St. 
Clair and Randolph counties, in tthe division of the papers 
and records this register, which is bound in hog-hide 
was allowed to remain in St. Clair County. A fuller de- 



70 

To furnish a satisfactory and accurate presentation of 
the regime of the French commandants in Illinois is a 
somewhat difficult undertaking, as the material bearing 
on the subject necessarily must be gathered from scatter- 
ed sources. From various early time records hints may 
be gathered. Margry's collections of general data per- 
taining to French affairs in America are of great use- 
fulness, while the work of Wallace on "Illinois and 
Louisiana under French rule" is a valuable contribution 
to this branch of research. The different histories on 
Louisiana are helpful aids, notably the writings of Gay- 
arre. In the custody of the Missouri Historical Society 
in St. Louis is a valuable manuscript on "Fort Chartres" 
and its commandants by Oscar W. Collet which shows 
much research and presents a collection of desirable his- 
torical material concerning the period of French occupa- 
tion of the Illinois country. A very erudite paper by Mrs. 
Mathew T. Scott on "Old Fort Massac" published in the 
Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for 
1903 contains a list of the commandants, the correct- 
ness of which is certainly as close a chronological arrange- 
ment as it is practicable to obtain. From these sources 
are derived the indices on which our information depends 
with reference to the sway of the French commandants 
in the Illinois country. 



72 




73 



ENGLAND. 



Prior to the treaty of Paris of 1763 France had by 
secret treaty in 1762 conveyed to Spain her claim to Louis- 
iana west of the Mississippi river ; so that when possession 
was taken by the English in 1765 their claim was limited 
to the eastern portion. The treaty of Paris was made 
February tenth, 1763. It transferred everything east of 
the Mississippi and north of Iberville. Under this the 
actual transfer was made October tenth, 1765, when St. 
Ange de Belle Rive, the last French commandant, deliver- 
ed Fort Chartres to Captain Sterling and a company of 
Highlanders. 

In 1768 Colonel Wilkins arrived in Kaskaskia on Sep- 
tember fifth by the order of General Gage and establish- 
ed a court of seven judges with monthly sessions at 
Fort Chartres. This was the first real legal machinery 
set in motion in Illinois. It superseded the military tri- 
bunal existing theretofore; though it was not popular 
on account of the lack of trial by jury. On account of 
changed conditions many of the French moved away and 
crossed the Mississippi river. During this English occupa- 
tion Pontiac was assassinated at Cahokia in 1769. This 
led to the Indian war which almost exterminated the Illi- 
nois. Pontiac had fought on the side of the French dur- 
ing the French-Indian War and, foreseeing that the tide 
of white immigration w^ould engulf his own race unless re- 
sisted, he formed most of the western tribes into a 
great confederacy for the purpose of offering resistance. 



74 

This is called in history the Conspiracy of Pontiac though 
in reality it was but a defense of native rights. For four 
years he held at bay the sweep of English migration to the 
westward but finally succumbed against superior odds. 
His management of this campaign stamps him as the great- 
est character in the history of the aboriginal race. He 
remained friendly to the French to his latest years. In 
his last year he went to St. Louis and visited his friend 
Chouteau. During this visit he heard of a ball in Caho- 
kia and he defermined to visit his French friends in this 
village. It was during his stay in this village that a cor- 
rupt conspiracy was formed by an English trader to en- 
compass his destruction. The trader bought a half-breed 
Peoria Indian with a barrel of rum to carry out the de- 
signs of the conspiracy. The Illinois country was then 
occupied by the English. After Pontiac 's assassination 
he was sent to St. Louis and buried near the fort ; near the 
site of the present Southern Hotel, in whose lobby a tablet 
to his memory was placed on one of the walls in 1900 by 
the St. Louis Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution.^ 

In 1772 on account of the encroachments of the river 
the government headquarters were moved from Fort Char- 
tres to Kaskaskia. Here Rocheblave was in possession 
when captured by Clark. Under the conquest of the 
Northwest in 1778 and its acquisition by Virginia the Illi- 
nois country became Virginian. 

a. Pontiac was born in 1710. Assassinated 1769. 



I 




<« 



77 



FORT CHARTRES AND THE CONQUEST OF THE 
NORTHWEST. 

The importance of Illinois was recognized immediately 
upon its discovery. The Mississippi river, the great cen- 
tral water-way of North America, bounding it on the west, 
connected with the Ohio, which furnished communication 
with the east and bounding it on the southeast, the great 
Chain of Lakes to the northeast, furnishing an avenue to 
the Atlantic Ocean, gave Illinois a central and command- 
ing position, which, coupled with its own inland streams, 
its fertile soil and its mineral substrata made it the key to 
dominion in North America for any power that might be 
fortunate enough to come into possession of this favored 
tract of territory, which, by nature, seems to be designed 
to be as much the political heart of a great nation as the 
human heart is the dominant factor in the physical organ- 
ism of man. The French, therefore, seized upon the op- 
portunity after its discovery to form settlements around 
the mission stations and to build forts to protect them- 
selves, not alone against the movements of the native 
tribes, but, also to better enable them to retain a firm 
hold on their possession. In addition to the small forts, 
one was projected in an advantageous position to become 
in time the controlling center for their dominion in 
this country. The site selected was in the present 
county of Kandolph, four miles to the west of what 
is now Prairie du Rocher and npar the Mississippi 
river. It was selected in 1718 by Boisbriant and 



78 

when completed was a wooden stockade surrounding the 
interior earthworks. Later it was ordered rebuilt of stone 
and a new structure about a mile above the old fort and 
near the river was made according to a plan of the engi- 
neer Jean Baptiste Saussier^ in 1751. It covered about 
four acres of ground. The walls, which were sixteen feet 
high, were two and a half feet thick at the base. Within 
this enclosure were barracks, stables, store-rooms, officers' 
quarters and magazines.^ It is estimated that from time 
to time a million dollars were spent on this immense forti- 
fication. Few vestiges of this fort are now left. The 
foundation of the wall may still be plainly traced amid 
the growth of weeds, brier and timber, and also the founda- 
tions of some of the larger buildings. Two of the wells 
are still in existence and a powder magazine in the north- 
eastern portion made of solid masonry is preserved almost 
intact to this day. In 1772 through encroachments of the 
river the fort was abandoned as it was considered un- 
tenable on account of the crumbling of one of its walls. 
The headquarters were then moved to Kaskaskia. 

The importance of Illinois was likewise recognized by 
the English for after its transfer to England they con- 
tinued to garrison Fort Chartres until the removal of their 
headquarters to Kaskaskia. 

During the war of the American Revolution a young 
Virginian who had done military duty among the frontier 
settlements of Kentucky, which was then a part of Virginia, 
recognizing the importance of the Illinois country, con- 

a. Dr. Snyder says this was original spelling of name. 

b. Snyder, Capt. John Baptiste Saucier, 29. 



79 

ceived tlie idea that he could best serve the cause of Ameri- 
can Independence by aiming a blow at the British power 
in the west. He had virtually been in command for Virginia 
in the Kentucky region during the year 1777 and it was 
then that he projected the plan to capture the French 
settlements in the Illinois country and pursuant to this 
aim he enlisted the good offices of Patrick Henry, the gov- 
ernor of Virginia, from whom he received a commission 
and instructions which should enable him to carry out his 
intentions. The expedition which was organized resulted 
in the capture of Kaskaskia with Rocheblave its British 
commandant as well as the military posts at Cahokia and 
Vincennes.^ The capture of Kaskaskia was accomplished 
first and as if complying not alone with the intent of the 
Declaration of Independence, but also as if it had been 
designed by the Fates that the anniversary, in its an- 
nouncement, should be celebrated by some substantial 
fruition, this capture was effected on the night of the 
fourth of July, 1778. This was done by George Rogers 
Clark and his little army of ' ' a little upwards of two hun- 
dred" men.^ 

a. Father Pierre Gibault, Charles Gratiot and Francois Vigo 

deserve honorable mention for services rendered in the 
Revolutionary cause through supplies contributed to aid 
the soldiers and further the making of Indian treaties. 

b. Clark's letter to Mason in English, Conquest of the N. W., 

Vol. 1, 437. 



VIRGINIA AND THE COUNTY OF ILLINOIS.^ 

Through the conquest by Clark, which was as decisive 
a step in the war of the Kevolution as was the breaking 
of the backbone of the Confederacy at Vicksburg during 
our Civil War, the dominion to the Northwest passed to 
Virginia, carrying Illinois with it as a part thereof. The 
legislature of Virginia passed a vote of thanks to Clark, 
his officers and men, erecting the Illinois country into ''the 
county of Illinois"^ and appointing John Todd as the 
county commandant.^ He had seen service on the fron- 
tiers during the Revolutionary war and was thoroughly 
well adapted for the position. His commission may be 
foimd entered up in Todd's Record or Minute Book now 
in the quarters of the Chicago Historical Society. This 
Minute Book was found in the court house at Chester.*^ 
The commission was issued by Patrick Henry, the Governor 
of Virginia. It contained very full instructions on how 
the county commandant was to deal with his surround- 

a. "The county of Illinois" it would seem was meant to 

embrace the whole Northwest, viz.: Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan and Wisconsin. 

b. This legislative provision applied to the citizens "on the 

Western side of the Ohio. ' 
Moses, 111. Hist, and Stat., Vol. I, 159. 

c. Edwards, Hist, of 111., 7. 

English, Conquest of the N. W., Vol. I, 249. 

d. Mason, 111. in the 18th Cent., 51. 



84 

ings and above all breathes tbat spirit of liberty with 
which the air of the New Continent was laden. The com- 
mandant was counselled "to cultivate and conciliate the 
affections of the French and Indians ; " 'Ho advise with 
the most intelligent and upright persons" that might come 
in his way (particularly Colonel Clark) ; to watch hostile 
movements and to co-operate in a military way with 
Clark or troops that might be sent from Virginia ; " to in- 
culcate on the people the value of liberty;" ''to see that 
the inhabitants have justice administered to them for any 
injury received from the troops;" to "punish every at- 
tempt to violate the property of the Indians ; " to cultivate 
the Spanish commandant near Kaskaskia and to see that 
Rocheblave 's wife and family did not suffer. These were 
the principal injunctions. Beyond this the Governor 
showed his faith in his appointee by reciting the following 
in the commission: "Act according to the best of your 
judgment in cases where these instructions are silent and 
the laws have not otherwise directed." A popular gov- 
ernment began its era in the county of Illinois and the 
people were allowed to elect judges for their primitive 
courts who functioned at Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Prairie 
du Rocher. Then came an influx of settlers from Vir- 
ginia. In 1781 came Bond, Garrison, Kidd, Moore, Pig- 
gott and Rutherford and settled near the Belle Fontaine 
(Beautiful Fountain) in what is now Monroe County ; and 
either on account of this immigration or the fact that the 
territory on the Missouri side of the Mississippi river was 
then Spanish territory, the low tract of land extending 
from Alton to Chester and from the river to the bluffs was 
called the American Bottom.^ 

a. American Bottom. See page 42. (Note.) 



85 

Todd fell in the battle of Blue Licks August nineteenth, 
1782, After this, a Lieutenant-Commandant par interim 
functioned for a while in a perfunctory way, but, from the 
cession by Virginia to the United States of the Northwest 
in 1784, to the establishment of the St. Clair government, 
or rather the creation of St. Clair County in 1790, there 
was not much systematic administration of go veru mental 
affairs in Illinois. 



89 



UNITED STATES— NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 

After the acquisition of the Northwest Territory, as 
stated in the preceding chapter, the Congress of the 
United States by act of September sixth, 1780, recommend- 
ed cessions to the United States, of claims on the part of 
the several states^ holding the same ''to waste and unap- 
propriated lands in the western country" "for the com- 
mon benefit of the Union" and in pursuance thereto, on 
January second, 1781, Virginia made a cession of her claim 
to the territory northwest of the Ohio to which Congress 
stipulated certain terms, by an act of September thirteenth, 
1783, on which the United States would agree to accept the 
cession. Following these preliminaries came an act of the 
General Assembly of Virginia of December twentieth, 1783, 
by which authority was given to the delegates of that 
state in Congress to convey to the United States the 
rights of that Commonwealth to the territory acquired by 
it. The main conditions of this transfer provided in sub- 
stance that the territory should be formed into states in 
due course of time and when admitted as members of 
the Federal Union that they should enjoy "rights of sov- 
ereignty, freedom and independence" common to all the 
states. "That the French and Canadian Inhabitants, and 

a. In 1785 Massachusetts ceded from 42 degrees 2 minutes to 
43 degrees, 43 minutes and 12 seconds north latitude, 
west of New York to the Mississippi. 
In 1786 Connecticut ceded from 41 degrees to 42 degrees 2 
minutes north latitude, west of Pennsylvania to the 
Mississippi. 



90 

other settlers of the Kaskaskies, St. Vincents, and the 
neighboring villages, who have professed themselves citi- 
zens of Virginia, shall have their possessions confirmed 
to them, and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights 
and liberties. ' ' And that a grant of land should be made 
to Clark and his officers and soldiers. In pursuance of 
all of the foregoing a deed of cession on March first, 1784, 
was made by the delegates of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, 
Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, to the 
United States by which the Virginia title passed to the 
tract of country "lying and being to the northwest of the 
river Ohio. ' ' 

By the act of Congress of July thirteenth, 1787, called 
the "Ordinance of 1787," for the government of this 
territory, provision was made with reference to inher- 
itances, descents, wills, conveyances, transfers, sales, etc., 
saving, however, again to the French and Canadian In- 
habitants their laws and customs. The ordinance pro- 
vided for a Governor, a secretary and a court of three 
judges. The Governor and judges, or a majority, had 
the power of making laws subject to disapproval by Con- 
gress until a General Assembly should be organized and 
then the legislature was given power to make alterations. 
The Governor was also Conmiander-in-Chief of the militia. 
Before the organization of the legislature, he could also 
appoint such officers as were necessary to preserve peace 
and good order. Afterward, the legislature was to make 
regulations. The Governor was given power to lay out 
counties and townships subject to alteration afterward by 
the legislature. The ordinance prescribed the mode of 
electing representatives and their qualifications. It also 
made provision for the organization of a General Assem- 
bly. Not less 



91 

than three nor more than five states were to be formed in 
this territory, and the boundaries, as soon as Virginia 
should consent to modify her cession, were to be fixed as 
follows: ''The western state in the said territory shall 
be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash 
rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post 
Vincents, due north, to the territorial line between the 
United States and Canada ; and by the said territorial line 
to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle 
state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash 
from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct 
line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami 
to the said territorial line, and by said territorial line. 
The eastern state shall be bounded by the last mentioned 
direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said terri- 
torial line; Provided, however, and it is further under- 
stood and declared, that the boundaries of these three 
states shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Con- 
gress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have au- 
thority to form one or two states in that part of the said 
territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn 
through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michi- 
gan.'^ It was also further provided that there should be 
"neither slavery nor involuntary servitude" except as a 
punishment for crimes, providing, however, for the return 
of fugitives to the original states where such labor or ser- 
vice could be lawfully claimed. This latter provision 
was the distinguishing feature of the ordinance, which in 
after years led to the making of so much history on the 
subject of African slavery and which resulted in making 
Illinois a prominent factor in the ultimate settlement of 
the question as subsequent events show. 



92 

A most important article in the ordinance was to this 
effect: ''Keligion, morality and knowledge being neces- 
sary to good government and the happiness of mankind, 
schools and the means of education shall forever be en- 
couraged." On this foundation is built the splendid 
system of education which is being maintained in the 
Northwest and which has certainly placed Illinois in the 
forefront. 

On the seventh of July, 1786, Congress stated certain 
reasons why the foregoing division of this territory 
"would be attended with many inconveniences" and rec- 
ommended a revision so as to allow such division into 
states ' ' not more than five nor less than three in number, 
as the situation of that country and future circumstances 
might require," to which Virginia assented by act of 
December thirtieth, 1788. 

On February first, 1788, General Arthur St. Clair was 
appointed Governor of this new territory. After the re- 
vision of the ordinance of 1787 and its acceptance by Vir- 
ginia, St. Clair was reappointed in 1789. Although born 
in Scotland, he served in the French and Indian War and 
the Revolution and was in public life so much that he be- 
came identified with the interests of the new world to that 
extent which made his appointment as appropriate as if 
he had been to the "manor born." 

The seat of territorial government was placed at Mari- 
etta (Ohio). Under the power conferred by the ordinance 
of 1787 on the Governor, the county of Washington (in 
Ohio) was the first county organized and then the county 
of Hamilton (also in Ohio) followed. In the spring of 

1790, the Governor 



94 




-'■^, 



TERRITORY 






95 

came to the Illinois country and established a county and 
appointed officers to attend to its affairs. This county 
was named after himself. It was the first county erected 
within the confines of the territory embraced within the 
present limits of Illinois and its extent covered about one 
third of the area of our state. The proclamation^ estab- 
lishing this county fixed its boundaries as follows : 

''Beginning at the mouth of the little Michilmakinack 
river, running thence southerly in a direct line to the 
mouth of the little river above Fort Massac upon the Ohio 
river; thence with the said river to its junction with the 
Mississippi ; thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of the 
Illinois river, and so up Illinois river to the place of be- 
ginning, with all the adjacent islands of said rivers, Illinois 
and Mississippi." 

The date of this proclamation was April twenty-sev- 
enth, 1790. The population of Illinois, at that time, was 
about two thousand in round numbers. 

In the year of the organization of this county, a belief 
in witchcraft^ being still prevalent, two negroes were 
executed for witchery at Cahokia as mentioned by Gover- 
nor Reynolds.*^ At this execution, a flock of crows was 
observed flying over the scene and it was remarked by the 
assembly that the spirits of the witches had gone Into the 
crows and had taken flight. 

In 1787, James Smith of Kentucky, a Baptist preacher, 

a. Book A, p. 1. Recorder's Office, St. Clair Co., 111. 

b. Mason, 111. in the 18th Cent., 59. 

c. Reynolds, Pioneer Hist, of III., 143. 



96 

came to the New Design^ settlement in Monroe County 
and his arrival meant the beginning of Protestantism in 
Illinois, which in 1793 received an added impulse through 
the arrival of Joseph Lillard, a Methodist missionary.^ 

As an important event, not alone in the history of this 
territorial period, but, important in the history of the state 
on account of its bearing on its progress, was the arrival 
of "the first American school master." Governor Eey- 
nolds says that this was John Seely, who came in 1783 to 
the New Design.^ 

In 1795, the county of St. Clair was divided and the 
southern portion was erected into Randolph County, while 
the northern part remained under its original name. This 
was done by the Proclamation of the Governor on October 
fifth, 1795. The dividing line was established at "Cove 
Spring, a little south of the New Design, and running from 
thence due east, etc." After the division, these two 
counties remained subject to the jurisdiction of the gov- 
ernment of the Northwest Territory until by act of Con- 
gress of May seventh, 1800, the Northwest Territory was 
divided into two parts. The one part shortly afterward 
became the present state of Ohio, while the other part 
was erected into the Indiana Territory, and General Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison was appointed as Governor. The act 
provided that from the fourth of July, 1800, the territory 
northwest of the Ohio and west "of the line beginning at 
the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Kentucky river," to Fort 

a. The New Design Settlement was formed in the neighbor- 

hood of the Belle Fontaine in Monroe County by Amer- 
ican pioneer immigrants in 1782. 

b. Cartwright, 167. 

c. Reynolds, Pioneer Hist, of 111., 122. 



97 




— «i 



A 



103 

Recovery and north to Canada should be the Indiana Ter- 
ritory. Illinois as a part of this tract remained subject 
to the jurisdiction of the Indiana Territory and sent its 
delegates to the Indiana territorial legislature at Vin- 
cennes until the act of Congress of February third, 1809, 
divided the Indiana Territory into two separate govern- 
ments, one of which became the Territory of Illinois. This 
Territory of Illinois, which was created to commence its 
existence on the first day of March, 1809, embraced the 
tract ''west of the Wabash river and a direct line drawn 
from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes due 
north" to Canada. The following year it contained a 
population of 12,282 as shown by the census of 1810. 

Soon after the creation of this territory, namely, oa 
April twenty-fourth, 1809, Ninian Edwards^ was ap- 
pointed as its Governor. Governor Edwards was born 
in Maryland in 1775. He became a lawyer by profession 
and moved to Kentucky, where he became Chief Justice of 
the Court of Appeals. He was recommended to President 
Madison by Henry Clay for Governor of the Illinois Terri- 
tory and was appointed on the foregoing date and again 
in 1812, when the territory was raised to the second grade 
and reappointed from time to time until the admission of 
the state. He was also elected as one of the first United 
States Senators with Jesse B. Thomas, on the admission 
of the state into the Union, and was elected its Governor 
in 1826. He died at Belleville July twentieth, 1833. The 
county of Edwards was named after him. 

The earthquake of 1811 mentioned by Reynolds^ was an 

a. Edwards, Hist, of 111., 27. 

b. Reynolds, My Own Times, 125 



104 

event of considerable physical importance. This occurred 
on the night of November sixteenth. The shocks were so 
severe as to cause great fear both among the population 
and the cattle. Through the American Bottom, chimneys 
were thrown down, houses were cracked and the bells in 
the churches rang. 

In 1812, Illinois was raised to a territory of the second 
grade and Gallatin, Johnson and Madison counties were 
formed on September fourteenth.^ The act of Congress 
of May second, 1812, raising the territory into the second 
grade, provided by its terms for an extension of the right 
of suffrage and also in thus raising its grade gave 
to the territorial legislature unlimited powers of legis- 
lation except where restrained by the ordinance of 1787. 
Following this, up to the period of statehood, our civil 
history is mainly noted for its creation of new civil divis- 
ions in the shape of new counties. Edwards^ County 
(named after the Governor) was formed November 
twenty-eighth, 1814; White° County on December fifth, 
1815; Monroe^ County on January sixth, 1816; Jackson® 
and Pope^ Counties on January tenth, 1816; Craw- 
ford^ County on December thirty-first, 1816; Bond^ 

a. By Proclamation of Ninian Edwards, Governor of Illinois 

Territory. See Ter. Rec. of 111. of 1809-1818, edited by 
Prof. E. J. James and published by the Illinois State 
Hist. Lib. 1901, p. 26. 

b. Ter. Rec. of 111. of 1809-181.*?, p. 35. 

c. Acts of 1815-16, p. 5. 

d. Acts of 1815-16, p. 25. 

e. Acts of 1815-16, p. 62. 

f. Acts of 1815-16, p. 66. 
gr- Acts of 1816-17, p. 21. 
h. Acts of 1816-17, p. 28. 



105 

County on January fourth, 1817; Franklin,^ Union^ and 
Washington^ Counties on January second, 1818. 

During this time, however, the progress of events was 
somewhat enlivened by the first appearance of steamboats 
in the west.<^ 

After having passed through its various vicissitudes 
and changes involving different occupants, discoverers, 
claimants, possessors and owners to which were added 
nine years of its own individual territorial period, Illinois 
finally, one hundred and forty-five years after its discov- 
ery by white men, was admitted as an integral part of the 
Union and granted all the rights of sovereignty pertaining 
to each of the members of our great sisterhood of states. 
It was the twenty-first state to be admitted. A new design 
for our national flag had been adopted some time previ- 
ously and the first star that was added to the constellation 
on the field of azure blue was the star of Illinois. 

a. Acts of 1817-18, p. 11. 

b. Acts of 1817-18, p. 15. 

c. Acts of 1817-18, p. 39. 

d. Ford, Hist, of 111., 96. 
Reynolds, My Own Times, 177. 
Moses, 111. Hist, and Stat, Vol. I, 389. 

For descriptions and quotations (except St. Clair and 
Randolph Counties) see Acts, Ordinances, Constitutions, 
Statutes of 111. 



106 



THE WAR OF 1812. 

The second war against England was declared on June 
eighteenth, 1812, on the recommendation of President 
Madison. For a number of years prior thereto, the In- 
dians had been growing more and more hostile towards 
the American inhabitants and settlers; desultory murders 
and depredations had been committed from time to time 
until finally Tecumseh made an eiffort to arouse all the 
tribes of the Northwest against the United States. Gen- 
eral Harrison, with an army, undertook to disperse them 
at the Prophet's Town on the Wabash, where they had 
assembled in great numbers. The battle of Tippecanoe, 
coming as it did on the heels of former hostilities, was an 
announcement to the settlers that the Indian war had be- 
gun. And then, as Governor Reynolds says: ''The 
United States Eangers were established for the defense of 
the frontiers." 

During the war of 1812, at the instigation of British 
Indian agents and traders, many barbarities were commit- 
ted by the Indians in Illinois. In every settlement and 
neighborhood log forts were erected for defensive opera- 
tions. One had been placed on the site of Chicago and a 
little garrison stationed at Fort Dearborn^ under Captain 
Heald, under orders, evacuated the fort on August fif- 
teenth, 1812, and 

a. Fort Dearborn was on the south side of the Chicago river 
about a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan, and was 
garrisoned by about seventy men. 



107 

with the women and the children marched out, but, having 
gone only a short distance, were attacked by savages. A 
combat ensued which lasted until Heald's force was con- 
siderably reduced, when the Indians withdrew for consul- 
tation, after which they proposed to spare the lives of the 
survivors if they surrendered. Heald and his remaining 
party did surrender but only to suffer the massacre of a 
considerable part of their number. 

Now came a concerted movement to stamp out the In- 
dian uprising. Governor Edwards prepared an expedition 
by boat and by land. In October of 1812, two boats were 
sent up the Illinois river under Captain Craig, while the 
Governor, with a force of four or five hundred men under 
Colonel Russell, marched for the headquarters of the en- 
emy at Peoria in the vicinity of which the Indians were 
established. About the same time, General Hopkins with 
three or four thousand Kentucky volunteers left Vincennes 
in order to form a junction with Governor Edwards. 
Hopkins was deceived by his guides, the Indians fired the 
prairies, and he was compelled to retreat and hence could 
not form a junction with the Illinois troops. Edwards 
waited, but, getting no reinforcements, retired to hunt 
winter quarters, however, destroying the Indian villages 
which lay on his return route. Peoria was burned be- 
cause Captain Craig's boats had been fired on by the In- 
dians and he suspected the inhabitants of having been in 
the conspiracy with the Indians. 

In 1813, another campaign was undertaken in northern 
Illinois. The Illinois troops were joined by a force from 
Missouri and together they marched to Peoria where they 
built Fort Clark (named in honor of George Rogers Clark), 



108 

burned Gomo 's town and two other villages. Part of the 
force was sent up the Illinois river, while a part was sent 
to scour the Rock river country for the enemy; and the 
Indians fled before their advance. A small force was 
left in Port Clark and late in the fall of 1813 the little 
army returned to Camp Russell^ from where it started. 
At the end of the war Fort Clark was abandoned by the 
Americans and shortly after was burned by the Indians. 

In 1814 Major Campbell went to Rock Island with a 
force in boats and had an engagement with the Sac and 
Fox Indians. Later in the same year Major Zachary 
Taylor (afterward President of the United States) also 
went to Rock Island with a force in boats and had an en- 
gagement with the Indians and British. 

Toward the end of 1814 hostile operations began to 
slacken and by the summer of 1815 peace was restored be- 
tween the United States and the tribes of the Northwest. 

As bounties to the soldiers of the war of 1812, lands 
were given which are embraced in what is known as The 
Military Tract, which extends between the Mississippi and 
Illinois rivers from the mouth of the Illinois northward 
one hundred and sixty-nine miles.^ 

a. Established in 1812 as Military Headquarters. 

b. Stevens, The Black Hawk War, 77. 
References for foregoing chapter: 

Beck, Gazetteer of 111. and Mo., 55, 56, 111, 143. 
Brown, Hist, of 111., 291 and suite. 
Edwards, Hist, of 111. (First Part.) 
Peck, Gazetteer of 111., 81, 87. 
Reynolds, My Own Times, 128 and suite. 
Reynolds, Pioneer Hist, of 111., 323 and suite. 



109 



THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 

In the ordinance of 1787 it was provided with refer- 
ence to the Northwest Territory, in forming it into states, 
that there should be "not less than three, nor more than 
five." It was also provided that "The western state in 
the said territory shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the 
Ohio and the Wabash rivers ; a direct line drawn from the 
Wabash and Post Vincents, due north, to the territorial 
line between the United States and Canada; and by the 
said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Missis- 
sippi." Declaring further, "that, if Congress shall here- 
after find it expedient, they shall have authority to form 
one or two states in that part of the said territory which 
lies north of an east and west line drawn through the 
southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. ' ' 

Under this ordinance, if the original boundaries of this 
western state had been allowed to remain, the state of 
Illinois would have embraced also the state of Wisconsin. 
But, Congress found it "expedient" to erect two states 
out of this territory under the discretionary powers grant- 
ed by the ordinance. In 1818, a petition was presented to 
Congress from the territorial legislature of Illinois, by the 
territorial delegate, Nathaniel Pope, asking for admission 
as a state. Through the efforts of Judge Pope an act of 
admission was passed in which he secured the extension of 
the northern boundary to the parallel of 42° 30' north 
latitude instead of the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. 



110 

Later, a controversy arose over this boundary line be- 
tween the states of Wisconsin and Illinois, which ended 
favorably to our state, as it was deemed that Congress 
had a right to exercise this power under the clause which 
made the matter of expediency the governing feature. 
Through the work of Judge Pope, fourteen of the north- 
ernmost counties were saved to us. The act of admission 
was passed April eighteenth, 1818, and by this the bound- 
aries were fixed as follows: ''Beginning at the mouth of 
the Wabash river; thence up the same, and with the line 
of Indiana, to the northwest corner of said state ; thence 
east with the line of the same state to the middle of Lake 
Michigan; thence north along the middle of said lake, to 
north latitude 42° 30' ; thence west to the middle of the 
Mississippi river; and thence down along the middle of 
that river to its confluence with the Ohio river ; and thence 
up the latter river along its northwestern shore, to the be- 
ginning." 

Following this, at a convention held in Kaskaskia, a 
state constitution was adopted on the twenty-sixth of 
August, 1818, which was ratified by Congress on December 
third of that year, and Illinois became a full fledged state 
on that date.' This constitution provided the foregoing 
boundaries and the constitutions of 1848 and 1870 have re- 
tained them since. 

Our state has concurrent jurisdiction with Indiana on 
the Wabash, so far as it forms a common boundary, and 
concurrent jurisdiction on the Mississippi with the states 
west thereof, so far as it forms a common boundary, and 
such jurisdiction on the Ohio ' ' as she is now entitled to, or 

such 



Ill 

as may hereafter be agreed upon by this state and the state 
of Kentucky. ' ' 

The act of Virginia of December eighteenth, 1789, 
creating the state of Kentucky, had provided with refer- 
ence to the Ohio river as follows : * ' The use and naviga- 
tion of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the pro- 
posed state, or the territory which shall remain within the 
limits of this commonwealth lies therein, shall be free and 
common to the citizens of the United States. And the re- 
spective jurisdictions of this commonwealth and of the 
proposed state, on the river as aforesaid, shall be concur- 
rent only with the states which may possess the opposite 
shores of the said river. ' ' 

At the first election held for officers of the new state 
government, Shadrach Bond was elected Governor. He 
was born in Maryland in 1773 and on his removal in 1794 
to Illinois, settled in the American Bottom. He was a 
member of the territorial legislature and also a territorial 
delegate in Congress. He died in 1834. A monument 
has been erected to his memory in the cemetery at Chester, 
for which the state appropriated $1500 in 1881. 

Pierre Menard became the first Lieutenant-Governor. 
He was naturalized not more than a year before. As the 
constitution required a citizenship of the United States for 
thirty years, in order that Menard might be qualified to 
hold the office, it was provided in the schedule of the con- 
stitution as follows : ''Any person of 30 years of age who is 
a citizen of the United States, and has resided within the 
limits of this state two years next preceding his election, 
shall be eligible to the office of lieutenant governor, any- 



112 

thing in section 13, article III, of this constitution con- 
tained, to the contrary notwithstanding. ' ' And through 
this he became legally qualified to hold the office of Lieu- 
tenant-Governor. A monument was erected to his mem- 
ory on the State House grounds at Springfield by his 
friend Chouteau of St. Louis in 1885. 

Within the foregoing boundaries, our state contains 
55,405 square miles. Its extreme length, extending from 
37° to 42° 30' north latitude, or from Cairo to Wisconsin, 
is 378 miles. Its extreme width, extending from 87° 49' 
to 91° 28' west longitude (Greenwich), is 212 miles. 

As early as the year of the admission of the state, an 
influx of German immigration began. Koerner mentions 
some Swiss families that were here in 1818.^ 

a. Koerner, Das Deutsche Element, 245. 

For descriptions and quotations, see Acts, Ordinances, Con- 
stitutions, Statutes of 111. 



113 



BOND 1818-1822. 

Shadrach Bond was inaugurated as the first Governor 
of Illinois on October sixth, 1818 The capital or seat of 
state government was fixed at Kaskaskia which place had 
been the seat of territorial government. New counties 
were formed as follows during the year 1819, namely: 
Alexander County on March fourth;^ Clark County on 
March twenty-second;^ Jefferson County on March 
twenty-sixth ;° Wayne County on March twenty-sixth.^^ 
The first legislature also provided for the removal of the 
capital and the site of Yandalia was selected, to where the 
government was moved in December, 1820. At the time 
of this removal the state contained nineteen counties and 
a population of 55,211.® 

When the General Assembly met at Vandalia in the 
winter of 1820 the paramount question which agitated the 
minds of the law-makers related to the incorporating 
of a state bank. This agitation was brought about 
in view of the depressed financial condition of affairs, 
which condition had been produced by too much specula- 
tion and over-stimulation. This bank was to be at Yan- 
dalia with four branches, namely, 

a. Act of 1819, p. 113. 

b. Act of 1819, p. 166. 

c. Act of 1819, p. 267. 

d. Act of 1819, p. 268. 

e. U. S. Census. 

Beck, Gaz. of 111. and Mo., pub. in 1823, p. 56. 



114 

at Brownsville, Edwardsville, Shawneetown and the seat 
of justice for Edwards County.^ The measure passed 
successfully through the General Assembly. If its subse- 
quent workings had been equally successful it would have 
been much more fortunate for the public. These banks 
were authorized to issue their notes, bearing a small rate 
of interest backed by the credit of the state, and these 
notes were to be loaned to the people on personal and real 
estate security. This scheme caught the popular favor, as 
any scheme of like nature, which promises relief from com- 
mercial distress would be likely to do, until its promises 
are found to be of the utmost futility. Hence, at first 
nearly everybody was satisfied because nearly everybody 
wanted money and through this governmental agency 
nearly everybody received accommodations, until $300,- 
000 were circulated in this way.. As there seemed to be 
no redemption, depreciation began to set in. As the se- 
curities furnished by the borrowers were of various na- 
tures, collections from them by the banks were extremely 
dilatory and doubtful; and as change became scarce, the 
fractional parts of bills, cut in pieces, served to take the 
place thereof. With this condition of things it can be 
well understood why these issues finally depreciated 
until it took three dollars to pay for one. It may be 
safely estimated that in the course of five years 
through this project, the state was the loser to the 
extent of more than a quarter of a million dollars. 
It is refreshing to know, however, that in the midst of the 
popular clamor a few sturdy men stood out boldly for 
the honor and financial well-being of our commonwealth. 

a. Act of 1821, pp. 80, 144. 



115 

John McLean, who was then speaker of the Assembly, 
vigorously battled against the enactment of the proposi- 
tion, and although beaten, the public realized his worth in 
after years to the extent of elevating him to the position 
of a United States Senator and his memory is perpetuated 
in the name of the county of McLean. Pierre Menard 
also understood the fallacy of the movement and when a 
resolution was passed, asking the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury to accept these bills for public lands, whilst the pre- 
siding officer of the Senate, he offered to wager that this 
would never be done. Menard County, on which he im- 
pressed his name, may be particularly proud of this god- 
father, while Illinois at the present day, relieved of the 
dangers of a return to this sort of a currency system, will 
revere his memory while gazing with pride upon his statue 
in the grounds of the Capitol. 

In 1821, the following counties were formed, namely: 
Lawrence County on January sixteenth;^ Greene County 
on January twentieth;^ Sangamon County on January 
thirtieth f Pike County on January thirty-first •,^ Hamilton 
County on February eighth;® Montgomery County on 
February twelfth;^ Fayette County on February four- 
teenth.s 

When Pike County was formed, although its territorial 



a. 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


16. 


b. 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


26. 


c. 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


45. 


d. 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


59. 


e. 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


113. 


f. 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


142. 


S- 


Act 


of 


1821, 


p. 


164. 



116 

extent was great, yet, its population was sparse. Beck 
wrote in 1823 that it ''contains between 7 and 800 inhabit- 
ants/'^ And of Chicago he wrote as of "a village of 
Pike County, situated on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of 
Chicago creek. It contains 12 or 15 houses, and about 60 
or 70 inhabitants."^ The original boundaries of Pike 
County were as follows: "beginning at the mouth of the 
Illinois river, and running thence up the middle of said 
river to the fork of the same, thence up the south fork of 
said river until it strikes the state line of Indiana, thence 
north with said line to the north boundary line of this 
state, thence west with said line to the west boundary line 
of this state, and thence with said line to the place of be- 
ginning."^ Within these limits it embraced about one- 
third of the state. 

A law of February twelfth, 1821,*^ recited ''whereas 
Daniel D. Smith has prepared for engraving a map of this 
state, the publication of which will greatly benefit the 
people of said state and others; — Therefore," — and then 
forty copies were authorized, ten of which were for the 
Secretary of State's office for the use of the General Assem- 
bl}^ and one for each of the counties of the state to be kept 
in the circuit clerk's office as county property "for the 
use and inspection of the citizens." 

Some doubts have been expressed by some historians as 
to whether the state really had the required population 
at the time of its admission. The congressional action 

a. Beck, Gazetteer of 111. and Mo., 82. 

b. Beck, Gazetteer of 111. and Mo.. 100. 

c. Act of 1821, p. 59. 

d. Act of 1821, p. 147. 



117 




119 

taken to authorize the formation of a state government re- 
quired forty thousand inhabitants resident in the terri- 
tory. As the census brought forth the required number 
there is no room for quibbling on this subject. The 
census of 1820 and Beck's Gazetteer of 1823 show that the 
state had advanced more than fifteen thousand beyond the 
required number necessary for admission. And whatever 
surmises may have arisen have long since been merged in 
the subsequent establishment of a commonwealth that is 
second to none. 

A very important act of this period was that of March 
thirtieth, 1819, entitled ''An act respecting free Negroes, 
Mulattoes, Servants and Slaves. ' '^ The provisions of this 
act, with subsequent supplemental acts, are known in his- 
tory as ' ' The Black Laws. ' ' 

The legislature in 1821 passed a resolution requesting 
concurrent jurisdiction of the Ohio river. ^ 

In the year 1821 the first legal execution took place in 
this state. 

a. Act of 1819, p. 354 and suite. 

b. Act of 1821, p. 186. 



120 



THE FIRST LEGAL EXECUTION .^ 

As the result of what was intended for a sham duel, 
the Grand Jury, at a special term of Court for St. Clair 
County on Monday, March the eighth, 1819, presented a 
bill of indictment against Timothy Bennett, Jacob Short 
and Nathan Fike. Previous thereto, on the occasion of 
the assembling of a large number of people in Belleville, 
it was suggested that a sham duel should take place be- 
tween Alonzo C. Stuart and Timothy Bennett. It seems 
that every one, who was cognizant of the intention of the 
affair, understood that it was to be merely a hoax for the 
purpose of having sport with Bennett. The latter, how- 
ever, did not understand the nature of the scheme on foot. 
The parties were placed at a distance of forty yards from 
each other. It was intended that the weapons should 
simply be charged with powder. "When Bennett fired his 
rifle it lodged a ball in Stuart's breast which killed him. 
Fike and Short had acted as seconds in this duel in the 
belief that it was to be a sham as was shown on the trial 
of their case, and they were acquitted by a jury on June 
seventeenth, 1819. When the indictment had been re- 
turned and the sheriff was ordered to bring forth the body 
of Bennett, the sheriff made the following return : ' ' The 
within named Timothy Bennett has made his escape 
by breaking the jail of St. Clair County, therefore 

a. Reynolds, My Own Times, 217, and suite. 

Affleck, Trans. State Hist. Soc. 111., 1901, p. 96. 



121 

1 cannot bring his body into the Court as I am com- 
manded. ' '^ Bennett remained out of the state until 1821, 
when he Avas found in Missouri and brought back to Belle- 
ville and at a special term of the Circuit Court he was 
tried and convicted as shown by the record of the twenty- 
eighth of July, 1821, on which day the jury before whom 
he was tried returned its verdict of guilty. In fixing the 
date for the execution, after sentence "that he be hanged 
by the neck untill he be dead" had been pronounced, it ap- 
pears that Saturday, the twenty-fifth day of August, was 
at first selected, but was changed to Monday, the third day 
of September, as shown by pen marks drawn through the 
former date.^ In either event, he was not ordered to be 
hanged on the traditional Friday. There were present 
at this court, John Reynolds, presiding as Judge, William 
A. Beard as Sheriff, and John Hay as Clerk. It was shown 
on the trial that Bennett had secretly placed a ball in his 
rifle. And hence he expiated his crime on the gallows in 
accordance with the order of the court. 

a. Record B. 139 in Circuit Clerk's office, St. Clair Co. 

b. Record C. 224 in Circuit Clerk's office, St. Clair Co. 



122 



COLES 1822-1826. 

On account of the enactment of ''The Black Laws'* in 
1819, followed by the national agitation in 1820 concern- 
ing the admission of Missouri as a free or slave state, it 
appears that during his gubernatorial campaign, the slav- 
ery question contributed very largely to Coles' election. 
Although elected, it was by a plurality only; the votes 
cast for him having been vastly in a minority among the 
number cast. Out of the 8,606 votes polled, he received 
2,854. Three other candidates were in the field who di- 
vided the vote in such a way as to make it possible for 
Coles to succeed. Of these candidates, two were pro- 
nouncedly for slavery, while Coles was considered, in one 
form and another, anti-slavery. This question had been 
ever present since the introduction of slaves by Renault 
and although the ordinance of 1787 ought to have pro- 
duced a definite settlement, yet the various interpreta- 
tions that arose from time to time continued to carry the 
question into Illinois history after it entered the period of 
its statehood, even after the state constitution tried to dis- 
pose of it by its provision. So it was found still to be 
a live issue in the campaign and continued to vex the 
course of affairs during Governor Coles' administration. 
The Governor added fuel in his inaugural address by deal- 
ing directly with the issue and making certain recommend- 
ations with reference thereto. The committee, to which the 



123 

message had been referred, reported a lengthy review 
which was strongly pro-slavery, and recommended the 
amending of our constitution. After many heated sieges, 
the legislature of 1823 adopted a resolution submitting to 
the voters the matter of amending the constitution. Fol- 
lowing this came a memorable campaign in which most of 
the leading men of the state were arrayed against the 
administration and which convulsed the state for a year 
and a half and which forms one of the most important 
links in the great chain of human liberty. When the polls 
closed on August second, 1824, it was found that there 
were 4,972 votes for the convention to amend the constitu- 
tion and 6,640 against the same.^ 

This administration was also harassed by unfortunate 
financial conditions produced through the state bank sys- 
tem of which the Governor had pointed out the objection- 
able features in his inaugural message. 

In his inaugural he also presented the importance of 
a great water-way through Illinois, from the Lakes to the 
Mississippi river, (which Governor Bond had also done in 
his inaugural) which project has been ever since in course 
of contemplation and which though advanced to some de- 
gree in the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and 
later, the digging of the Chicago Sanitary Canal, will 
never be thoroughly realized unless the national govern- 
ment shall aid in establishing a navigable deep water-way 

from the 

a. Ford, Hist, of 111., 50. 

Reynolds, My Own Times, 239. 
Edwards, Hist, of 111., 192. 
Moses, 111. Hist, and Stat., 307. 



124 

Lakes to the Gulf. This project would not only be of 
immense value to the state, which is the heart and center 
of the nation, but in its far-reaching effect would be pro- 
ductive of much commerical utility to every section of the 
nation. By act of January seventeenth, 1825, the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal Company was incorporated.^ 

During the year 1825, La Fayette, during his tour of 
the United States, paid our state a visit at the invitation 
of the legislature. His reception took place at Kaskaskia. 
He had visited St. Louis and made the trip by boat. From 
there he visited the south and on his return trip, again 
visited Illinois by making a stop at Shawneetown. 

In spite of the persistence of the opposition to nearly 
all of the measures recommended by the Governor in his 
inaugural message, he found a laudable support in one re- 
spect which found its fruition in the law relating to free 
schools introduced by Joseph Duncan, who was then a 
member of the Senate, and later became one of the Gov- 
ernors of this state. This act for the establishment of 
free schools was passed on January fifteenth, 1825.^ 

During this administration counties were formed as 
follows : 

Edgar January 3, 1823. 

Marion '' 24, ** 

Fulton '' 28, *' 

Morgan " 31, *' 

Clay December 23, 1824. 

Clinton '' 27, '' 

a. Act of 1825, p. 160. 

b. Act of 1825, p. 121. 



Lct of 1823, p. 


74 


tc (t 


49 


t( n 


88 


a a 


109 


1824, 


18 


(f a 


28 



125 



Wabash 
Calh oim . 
Adams . 
Hancock 
Henry . . 
Ejiox . . , 
Mercer . 
Peoria . . 
Putnam . 
Schuyler 
Warren . 
Vermilion 
McDonough 



December 27, 1824. Act of 1824, p. 25 



January 10, 1825. 
13, 
13, 
13, 
13, 
13, 
13, 
13, 
13, 
13, 

18, 1826. 
25, " 



1825, 



1826, 



65 
93 
93 
94 
94 
93 
85 
94 
93 
93 
50 
76 



126 



EDWARDS 1826-1830. 

On December sixth, 1826, Ninian Edwards was inau- 
gurated as the third Governor. 

The banking system had been an issue in the campaign 
and was still uppermost in the public mind. Hence the 
Governor in his inaugural among other things made refer- 
ence to this subject. 

The slavery question, too, although it had received a 
set-back at the polls in 1824, nevertheless occupied the 
legislators and the Black Laws were reinforced by an act 
of February second, 1827, which prohibited negroes, mu- 
lattoes and Indians from being witnesses against whites. 
By this law a mulatto was defined to be a person of one- 
fourth negro blood.^ Also a law of January seventeenth, 
1829, provided against harboring negroes.^ 

The first session of the legislature provided by act of 
February fifteenth, 1827,<^ that as soon as Congress gave 
consent for the sale of the Saline Reserves they were to be 
sold and part of the proceeds was to be appropriated for 
the erection of a penitentiary. This became the peniten- 
tiary at Alton. 

A school act was adopted February seventeenth, 1827,^ 

a. Act of 1827, p. 320. 

b. Act of 1829, p. 109. 

c. Act of 1827, p. 353. 

d. Act of 1827, p. 364. 



127 

amendatory of the school act of 1825 providing that no 
person should be taxed for school purposes without con- 
sent, but the persons residing in the limits of a school dis- 
trict should have the privilege of subscribing for the sup- 
port and establishment of the school and the rents and 
profits of any school lands within the boundaries of the 
township were to be assigned and appropriated for the use 
of the school under the superintendence of trustees. 

At the next session of the legislature by act of January 
twenty-second, 1829,^ the policy of selling school lands 
was inaugurated for the purpose of loaning the proceeds 
to the state to meet its current expenses. This act pro- 
vided for the sale, as soon as Congress should assent, of 
sections sixteen or the school lands in each township. 

The Illinois and Michigan Canal Company incorpora- 
tion act was repealed on January twentieth, 1826,^ on the 
ground that the object could be best promoted under the 
direction of the state. Commissioners to settle the route 
of the canal were provided. Congress in 1827 had grant- 
ed the state the alternate five sections on both sides of the 
Illinois and Michigan Canal to aid its construction. And 
on January twenty-second, 1829, an act provided for con- 
structing the canal.^ 

On the whole the affairs of this administration seem 
to have left a very satisfactory impression. The trend 
of affairs among the people was chiefly marked by the 
awakening of an interest in higher educational affairs. 

a. Act of 1829, p. 150. 

b. Act of 1826, p. 63. 

c. Act of 1829, p. 14. 



128 

In 1827, John Mason Peck, a Baptist minister, built a 
two story frame house, which he called ' ' The Rock Spring 
Theological Seminary and High School" half way between 
the present cities of 'Fallon and Lebanon. This pioneer 
beginning has since developed into Shurtleff College, 
which is situated in Upper Alton. 

McKendree College sprang into being three miles to 
the east of Rock Spring where it still retains its name and 
existence in the city of Lebanon. 

Illinois College was one of the educational pioneers 
which still retains its name and existence in the city of 
Jacksonville. 

And these three institutions laid the foundation for 
our present higher education. 

The census for the closing year of Edwards' adminis- 
tration shows that the population of the state had in- 
creased to 157,445. So that in the first decade of its ex- 
istence the new state had almost trebled in population. 

During this administration the following counties were 
formed : 

Shelby January 23, 1827. Act of 1827, p. 115 

Perry " 29, '' '' '* 110 

Tazewell '' 31, " '' '' 113 

Jo Daviess ....February 17, '' " " 117 

Macoupin January 17, 1829. " 1829, 26 

Macon '' 19, '' '' '' 28 

As part of that series of Indian depredations which 
harassed the state until the Black Hawk War practically 
settled the Indian difficulties, may be mentioned the con- 



129 

stant troubles between the miners around the Galena min- 
ing district and the Winnebagos, which have been dignified 
into a war by some historians and which may be accredited 
as properly to the history of Wisconsin as to the history 
of our state. The most important episode which oc- 
curred was in the summer of 1827 when a couple of keel- 
boats on the Mississippi were attacked somewhere above 
Galena near Prairie du Chien and quite a lively skirmish 
ensued between the crews and the Indians. This naval 
maneuvre seems to have been about all there was of the 
"Winnebago war. The soldiers under General Atkinson 
who went into the heart of the Winnebago country ended 
the war by bringing the principal chief Red Bird and six 
others to Prairie du Chien and confining them in jail where 
Red Bird died. Black Hawk, although of the Sacs, was 
among the number brought in. No bill was found against 
him, however, and he lived to cause much annoyance later. 

a. Edwards, Hist, of 111., 218 and suite. 



130 



THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 

As supplemental to that part of the foregoing chapter 
which bears on the history of the earlier attempts at the 
establishment of places of instruction, it may be well at 
this juncture to trace the history of our educational sys- 
tem from its incipient stage to its present development. 

The ordinance of 1787 contained the following lan- 
guage : ''Eeligion, morality, and knowledge, being neces- 
sary to good government and tlie happiness of mankind, 
schools and means of education shall forever be encour- 
aged." 

The act of Congress which enabled Illinois to prepare 
for statehood, provided that section sixteen in every town- 
ship should be ''For the use of schools." Also that five 
per cent of the net proceeds from the sale of land by Con- 
gress should be divided by devoting two-fifths thereof to 
the making of roads and the balance for the encourage- 
ment of education. One-sixth of this balance was to be 
used for a university. Also an entire township, to be 
designated by the President, together with one already 
reserved for the purpose, w^as to be appropriated for the 
use of a seminary. Which provisions among others were 
accepted by Illinois and became the basis for our school 
and university system. 

Shadrach Bond, our first Governor, in his message 
recommended the building of a "Seminary of learning." 



131 

In 1825, Senator Joseph Duncan's Free School act^ 
was passed providing for local and state taxation. But 
the temper of the people did not seem to be quite ready 
for the introduction of the system, so that for a while 
longer the history of education is but the recital of at- 
tempts made to employ some itinerant school master to 
teach what they called in the language of the day "The 
three R's." It was not until the effort was made at the 
establishment of the early time colleges that a decisive im- 
pulse was given to the educational movement. 

In 1827^ Duncan's school law was amended. Rents 
and profits of school lands were devoted to school pur- 
poses. In 1829 it was decided to inaugurate a policy of 
selling school and seminary land in order that the state 
might borrow the proceeds to pay its running expenses. 

The law of 1849 made the Secretary of State ex-ofiicio 
Superintendent of Schools. And this led to the law of 
1854 by which the office of State Superintendent was es- 
tablished and also a system of free schools. 

The law of February eighteenth, 1857, established the 
first State Norm^al University. The principal purpose ex- 
pressed was "To qualify teachers for the common schools 
of the state. ' ' It was located at what is now Normal. 

By the constitution of 1870, the State Superintendent 
became an executive officer and his term was lengthened 
from two to four years. This constitution gives the legis- 
lature -power to "Provide a thorough and efficient system 
of free schools, whereby all children of this State may re- 
ceive a good common school education." 

a. See ante, p. 126. 

b. See ante, pp. 128, 129. 



132 

Following have been State Superintendents : 

Ninian W. Edwards 1854 

William H. Powell 1857 

Newton Bateman 1859 

Newton Bateman 1861 

Jolin P. Brooks 1863 

Newton Bateman 1865 

Newton Bateman 1867 

Newton Bateman 1869 

Newton Bateman 1871 

Samuel W. Etter 1875 

James P. Slade 1879 

Henry Raab 1883 

Richard Edwards 1887 

Henry Raab 1891 

Samuel Inglis ) ^^q_ 

Joseph H. Freeman j" 

Alfred Bayliss 1899 

Alfred Bayliss 1903 

Following are the State Educational Institutions: 

Northern Illinois State Normal School, DeKalb. 

Eastern Illinois State Normal School, Charleston. 

Western Illinois State Normal School, Macomb. 

Illinois State Normal University, Normal. 

Southern Illinois Normal University, Carbondale. 

University of Illinois, Urbana. 

111. Inst, for Education of Blind, Jacksonville. 

111. Inst, for Education of Deaf and Dumb, Jackson- 
ville. 



133 



REYNOLDS AND EWING 1830-1834. 

On December ninth, 1830, Jolin Reynolds was inau- 
gurated as Governor. In his inaugural message he dealt 
with but few subjects. He made a favorable recommen- 
dation as to the construction of the Illinois and Michigan 
Canal. Also recommended the finishing of the peniten- 
tiary at Alton and that a final disposition be made of 
state bank affairs. In line with the latter recommenda- 
tion, the legislature authorized the state to borrow $100,- 
000 with which to redeem an outstanding circulation about 
to fall due. 

His message to the next General Assembly was also 
brief, dealing mainly with the matter of improving the 
harbor of Lake Michigan and connecting the lake with 
the Illinois river. He was also in favor of the establish- 
ment of a common school system and so urged in this 
message. 

The matter of building railroads began to receive some 
attention and several charters of incorporation were 
granted. 

In 1834 Reynolds was elected to Congress and resigned 
as Governor. Zadoc Casey had been elected Lieutenant- 
Governor in 1830, but in 1832 was elected to Congress and 
William L. D. Ewing was elected President pro tern of the 
Senate and on Reynolds' resignation on November seven- 
teenth, 1834, (because he was elected to Congress) Ewing 
became Governor. 



134 



During this administration counties were formed as 
follows : 

Coles December 25, 1830. 

McLean '' 25, '^ 



Cook January 15, 1831. 

La Salle '' 15, '' 

Rock Island . . . .February 9, '' 

Effingham " 15, " 

Jasper " 15, " 

Champaign .... " 20, 1833, 

Iroquois '' 26, " 

Of the events which took place under this administra- 
tion the one w^hich has received most attention from his- 
torians was the Black Hawk War. 



Act 


of 


1830, p. 


59 


i i 




a 


57 


i i 




1831, 


51 


i i 




( i 


54 


( i 




i I 


52 


'. (■ 




1 1 


51 


'^ 




i ( 


50 






1833, 


28 


11 




^ c 


19 



135 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 

The Black Hawk War grew out of a disagreement over 
the provisions of a treaty made November third, 1804, be- 
tween the Sac and Fox Indians, and the national govern- 
ment. The United States had agreed to pay these tribes 
an annuity of the value of a thousand dollars a year for 
which the Indians ceded their lands betAveen the Wiscon- 
sin, Fox, Illinois and Mississippi rivers, including a large 
portion beyond the Mississippi in Missouri also in the ces- 
r»ion, retaining to the Indians the right to live and hunt, 
however, on these lands so long as they belonged to the 
government. 

On account of long-continued frictions between the 
Indians and whites, it was easy to arrive at a misunder- 
standing on the subject of this cession. The government 
had caused some of tlie lands to be surveyed and as the 
purchasers to whom they were afterwards sold settled on 
them, the question was raised by Black Hawk, a chief of 
the Sacs, as to their right to take possession. He claimed 
that the treaty of 1804 was a nullity because he charged, 
in effect, that the Indians who had made it at St. Louis 
with General Harrison were not empowered with authority 
from, their nation; that these Indians had been sent to St. 
Louis to look after some others who had been arrested for 
murder; that when they came back to the tribes in th^ 
Rock river country, beyond the memory of a big spree, 

they only 



136 

remembered further, in a somewhat confused way, that 
they had sold some land. It was on this pretext that 
Black Hawk based his opposition to the removal of his 
tribe. On account of collisions occurring between the 
settlers and the Indians, Governor Edwards in 1828 asked 
for the expulsion of the latter and in 1829 President Jack- 
son issued an order in compliance with the request. The 
time limit in which they were to move beyond the Missis- 
sippi was to be April first, 1830. To this order Keokuk, 
a leader of. one of the Indian factions, counselled acqui- 
escence but Black Hawk was obstinate. With his bands, 
enforced by Winnebago and Pottawatomi allies, Black 
Hawk began his raids on the settlers. These appealed to 
the Governor for protection. Reynolds was Governor at 
the time. He construed the Indian conduct, after the 
order of expulsion, as an invasion of the state. He com- 
municated with the Superintendent of Indian affairs and 
with General Gaines of the United States army, with a 
view to securing the defense of the settlers and the re- 
moval of the Indians. General Gaines went to Kock Island 
with several companies of regulars and the Governor issued 
a call for seven hundred mounted volunteers. In the 
early part of June of the year 1831, the volunteer militia 
assembled at Beardstown to the number of fifteen hun- 
dred. The populace responded with such alacrity that 
the number called for was more than doubled. The brig- 
ade was commanded by Major-General Joseph Duncan. 
When this force made its junction with the regulars on 
the Mississippi in the Rock river country the entire army 
numbered about twenty-five hundred men. This force 
overawed the Indians, who withdrew to the west bank of 

the Mississippi. 



137 

When General Gaines sent notice of his intention to follow 
the Indians, Black Hawk made his appearance at the head- 
quarters of the army and entered into a treaty on June 
thirtieth, 1831, by which he agreed that he and his band 
would not come to the east side of the Mississippi except 
by permission. But, restless under the advancing tide of 
white migration and encouraged in his resistance thereto 
by his neighboring tribes and allies. Black Hawk came 
back with his band on April sixth, 1832. On April six- 
teenth Governor Reynolds again issued a call for volun- 
teers and in a few days 1,935 men rendezvoused at Beards- 
town ready to participate and co-operate with the one 
thousand regulars in the impending struggle for the final 
removal of the Indian band, whose hostility could not 
otherwise be tamed, from the soil of Illinois. Brigadier- 
General Samuel Whiteside was placed in command of the 
volunteer force. The Governor accompanied the army on 
its line of march, which it took up on the twenty-seventh 
of April. A junction was again effected in the Rock river 
country with the regulars, then under General Henry At- 
kinson. The volunteers were to proceed ahead up the Rock 
river, while the regulars were to follow with provisions. 
The Prophet's Town was set on fire by the troops and the 
march was continued to Dixon. Here two battalions of 
volunteers had already arrived who were anxious to see 
service; and these under Major Stillman on May twelfth 
were sent on a spy expedition which resulted in an encoun- 
ter at a small creek which is now known as ** Stillman 's 
Run.'* Black Hawk poured his main force on this party, 
in numbers much smaller than his, and drove them back to 
Dixon. The next morning the army marched to the place 



138 

of disaster but found that the Indians had gone. They 
returned to Dixon and the next day General Atkinson and 
the regulars came up with the provisions. As the volun- 
teers had been away from their homes for about a month, 
an unwillingness to continue in the service began to seize 
many of them and so after marching about two weeks 
longer, they were discharged on their arrival at Ottawa 
on May twenty-seventh. 

Under another call two thousand more volunteers were 
raised so that the entire volunteer force amounted to over 
three thousand. These rendezvoused on June fifteenth at 
Beardstown and Hennepin and on the twentieth began to 
move under the command of General Atkinson of the regu- 
lars until the forces were concentrated at Dixon from 
where subsequent operations started and the hunt for 
Black Hawk began. These operations consisted of 
marches across the country, desultory engagements with 
fragmentary Indian bands, mixed with dissatisfaction on 
the part of the troops until a skirmish took place on the 
Wisconsin, after which the movement of the army was di- 
rected towards the Mississippi, where a considerable en- 
gagement took place near the Bad Axe river, in which 
Black Hawk took part, but from where he escaped with a 
number of companions and fell back to the Wisconsin. A 
number of Sioux and Winnebagos, who professed friend- 
ship for the whites, were sent after him and his compan- 
ions and captured them up on the Wisconsin river and hav- 
ing brought them to Prairie du Chien to the Indian agent. 
General Taylor ordered them taken to Rock Island, but on 
their arrival on account of the cholera they were taken 
to Jefferson Barracks at St. Louis, where they made a 



139 

treaty by which they ceded a large tract of land in Iowa. 
The prisoners were held as hostages as a guarantee for 
the good behavior of the rest of the band. They were 
taken to Washington and met General Jackson, who was 
then President. They were ordered to Fortress Monroe. 
On June fourth, 1833, by order of the President, they 
were allowed to return to their own country west of the 
Mississippi, where Black Hawk remained until he died in 
1838. 

On August fifteenth, 1832, at Dixon, the volunteer 
army was mustered out. 

Every Illinois historian, who has written since 1832, 
has treated of this war and the chapters of their works 
bearing on this subject are suggested for reference. 

Besides these there are works devoted particularly and 
exclusively to this historic affair. 

"The Sauks and the Black Hawk War" by Armstrong 
was published in 1887 and contains over seven hundred 
pages of interesting matter. 

"The Black Hawk War" by Stevens was published in 
1903. It contains over three hundred pages and is a very 
sound presentation. 



uo 



DUNCAN 1834-1838. 

On December third, 1834, Joseph Duncan was inau- 
gurated as Governor. His inaugural message pressed upon 
the legislature the consideration of a public school system 
and the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
and a generaJ system of Internal Improvements. 

During this administration, in spite of the failure of 
the state banking system, which had brought so many 
financial collapses a few years before, the state bank 
scheme was revived by the creation of a new state bank^ 
and the revival of the charter of the bank at Shawnee- 
town.^ History repeated itself in after years when the 
collapse of both these banks came in 1842. 

The agitation for the removal of the state capital had 
already taken place during the previous administration 
and the legislature submitted the question of a relocation 
to the people. Alton, Jacksonville, Peoria, Springfield 
and Vandalia were in the contest, but neither received a 
majority. At the legislative session on February twenty- 
fifth a bill for the removal was passed and a few days 
later both houses met together and selected the location. 
On the fourth ballot Springfield was selected; to where 
the seat of government was removed in 1839. 

An act for the construction of the Illinois and Michi- 

a. Act of 1835, p. 7. 

b. Act of 1835, p. 15. 



141 

gan Canal was passed by the legislature January ninth, 
1836.^ The Governor was empowered with authority to 
negotiate a loan of $500,000 and three canal commissioners 
were provided to conduct this business of the state. The 
canal was to commence ''at or near the town of Chicago" 
and end ''near the mouth of little Vermillion in La Salle 
county.'' This canal to be not less than forty -five feet 
wide on the surface and thirty feet at the bottom and at 
least four feet deep. Ninety feet on each side were also 
reserved to be used in case it became necessary to enlarge. 
The main water supply, of course, was to be from Lake 
Michigan but the commissioners were to use such other 
sources as they deemed proper. On the recommendation 
of the chief engineer, the commissioners decided to make 
the canal sixty feet wide at the surface, thirty-six feet at 
the bottom and six feet in depth. In 1837, the year after 
this act was passed. Peck said in his Gazetteer, "The 
project of this canal is a vast enterprise for so young a 
state, but truly national in its character, and will consti- 
tute one of the main arteries in eastern and western com- 
munication. ' '^ 

On the twenty-seventh of February, 1837,^ an act was 
passed which provided for a "Board of Fund Commission- 
ers" and a "Board of Commissioners of Public Works" 
who were to look after and manage the system of internal 
improvements which was to be undertaken by the state, 
with the exception of the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
which had its own board provided for. The scheme of 

these works involved a 

a. Act of 1836, p. 145. 

b. Peck, Gazetteer of 111., 57. 

c Act of 1837, p. 121 and suite. 



142 

matter of more than ten millions of dollars. It embraced 
in its far-reaching intentions the improvements of rivers, 
roads and railroads, as well as subsidies to comities where 
no road or canal improvements were to be made. Appro- 
priations were made as follows : 

1. For the improvement of the navigation of 

the Great Wabash river $ 100,000 

2. For the improvement of the navigation of 

the Illinois river west of the third Prin- 
cipal Meridian 100,000 

3. For the improvement of the navigation of 

the Rock river 100,000 

4. For the improvement of the navigation of 

the Kaskaskia river 50,000 

5. For the improvement of the navigation of 

the Little Wabash river 50,000 

6. For the great western mail route leading 

from Vincennes to St. Louis 250,000 

$30,000 on that part between Vincennes and 
Lawrenceville, commonly called the 
** purgatory swamp." 

$15,000 on the Wabash river bottom between 
the Big Muddy and the main river. 

$30,000 between the Bluffs and the Missis- 
sippi river in St. Clair County. 

And the residue in bridging and repairing as 
equally as practicable. 

7. Railroad from Cairo to Galena via Vandalia, 

Shelbyville, Decatur, Bloomington and 
Savannah 3,500,000 



143 

8. Railroad from Alton to Mount Carmel via 

Edwardsville, Carlyle, Salem, Fairfield 
and Albion, with divergencies and inter- 
sections $1,600,000 

9. The northern cross railroad from Quincy 

to Indiana via Columbus, Clayton, Mt. 
Sterling, Meredosia, Jacksonville, Spring- 
field, Decatur, Sidney and Danville 1,850,000 

10. A branch of the central railroad com- 

mencing at intersection near Shelbyville 
and Hillsboro, thence via Shelbyville, 
Charleston and Paris to state line in gen- 
eral direction for Terre Haute 650,000 

11. Railroad from Peoria to Warsaw via Can- 

ton, Macomb and Carthage 700,000 

12. Railroad from Lower Alton via Upper Al- 

ton and Hillsboro to central railroad. . . . 600,000 

13. Railroad from Belleville via Lebanon to in- 

tersect railroad from Alton to Mt. Carmel 150,000 

14. Railroad from Bloomington to Mackinaw 

and branches 350,000 

15. For counties without railroads or canals . . 200,000 
Although Duncan had recommended public improve- 
ments, yet when the matter assumed such extravagant 
form, he refrained from giving it his approval. But the 
legislature passed the act nevertheless. 



144 

The impulse toward improvement was not alone in the 
public mind but private enterprises also began to be set 
on foot. Thus was formed by Ex-Goveronr Reynolds the 
project of a plan on private account to build a railroad 
which may justly lay claim to having been the first in the 
Mississippi valley and in fact in the entire west. This 
was in 1837.^ It ran from the Mississippi river, from the 
site of the present city of East St. Louis, eastward across 
the American Bottom for about six miles to the Bluffs. 
These Bluffs are a range of hills full of coal and it was in 
order to connect these coal fields with the market that 
this pioneer^ western road was built. St. Louis on the 
west side of the American Bottom and across the river was 
the market to be reached. Reynolds owned a vast amount 
of land in that region and in company with some others he 
undertook the construction of this work which was des- 
tined in after years to develope the great coal fields of 
southern Illinois. Great piles were driven into the Grand 
Marais^ to furnish a foundation on which to build the 

track over 

a. Reynolds, My Own Times, 503. 

b. Col. John Thomas, who was a veteran of the Black Hawk 

war and who lived to the ripe age of ninety- six, some 
years before his death told the author that he remem- 
bered the internal improvement system days and when 
the Vincennes and St. Louis road (great western mail 
route) was built, he took a contract, and while at work 
with his force in the American Bottom in the fall of 
1837, the building of Reynolds' railroad was going on a 
few miles to the south. 

c. Grand Marais — Great Marsh. 



145 

the great marsh lying immediately at the foot of the hills. 
For a while horse power was used.^ Later, iron rails were 
sent from Pittsburg down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. 
On their arrival, holes were punched into them, and spikes 
were made by the early time blacksmiths of the American 
Bottom.^ 

Under this administration the following counties v\-ere 
formed : 

Will January 12, 1836. Act of 1836, p. 262 

Kane " 16, ■• • '' 273 

McHenry '' 16, • • '' 273 

Ogle " 16, " •' '' 274 

Whiteside '' 16, '' '' '' 274 

Winnebago ....'' 16, '* *' '' 273 

Livingston. . .February 27, 1837. " 1837 83 

Bureau '' 28, '' " '' 93 

Cass March 3, " '• '' 101 

Boone •• 4, '' •■ '' 97 

DeKalb " 4, " - '' 97 

Stephenson '' 4, " '' •' 97 

During this administration there took place an event 
which was not only the most important that transpired on 
the soil of this state, but is possibly one of the most im- 
portant events in the history of the universe. This was 
the assassination of Lovejoy on November seventh, 1S37. 

a. Ackerman. Early Illinois Railroads, 13. 

b. Chrisostomus Boul, a very aged Frenchman, who was a 

blacksmith in the early days, told the author that he 
helped to punch holes and make spikes. 



146 



LOVE JOY'S ASSASSINATION. 

(From Author's Lecture on "The Man of Illinois.") 

Although in point of time the commonwealth of Illi- 
nois cannot compare with nations into whose historic seas 
a thousand rivers of antiquity have flowed, yet, in point 
of merit it can compare with all thg" hoaryheaded com- 
monwealths that have existed since creation's dawn. In 
fact, although its civil life dates back but little more than 
two hundred years, yet in the two centuries and a quarter 
since the first white man landed on its soil, it has con- 
tributed a galaxy of stars pre-eminent in the firmament of 
human greatness and has produced the greatest and grand- 
est event in the history of the universe. 

Attempts at the establishment of liberty were made by 
nations and peoples in the past ; some in a degree were suc- 
cessful; the French Revolution obtained a more just dis- 
tribution of property rights; the American Revolution 
established a more just distribution of personal and politi- 
cal rights; it was reserved, however, for Illinois to become 
the actual birthplace of freedom in its more perfect sense. 
La Fayette had presented to the Constituent Assembly of 
France his famous Declaration of the Rights of Man. 
Thomas Jefferson had given the world a still greater chart 
in the Declaration of Independence. But the rights of 
man and independence only began to be recognized sixty 
years later. During these sixty years we preached the 

doctrine of the Declara- 



147 

tion that there * ' are certain inalienable rights, among them 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Yet, during 
these sixty years we practiced human slavery, both white 
and black. The blacks had their bodies held in bondage, 
while the whites had their minds held in fetters, on this 
and other subjects. When at the end of sixty years, a 
champion came for both white and black, a realization 
was found at last in the coming of the fulfillment of the 
promises contained in our political charter. And though 
this champion fell, a martyr to his faith, yet from his 
blood there sprang the seed that ripened into liberty full 
grown itself. When Love joy fell below the base of Al- 
ton's bluff in 1837, the flag of freedom rose on every cliff 
throughout the universe. When on his vision fell the 
curtain of the night of death, in that moment dawned the 
day of life upon his fellow-men. In this dawn the hand 
of Fame inscribed upon its roll the martyr's name and Al- 
ton as his place of death; inscribed the name of Liberty 
and Alton as its place of birth ; and then it placed a credit 
to the name of Illinois. 

Elijah Parish Love joy was born in Maine in 1802. He 
began life with a century that was freighted with weighty 
events and to which he was destined to contribute the 
weightiest of all. He passed his infancy, his boyhood 
and his youth in his native pine tree state. He 
breathed its pure air as he played amid the ocean 
zephyrs that were wafted from the bay of old Penob- 
scot ; he learned his first lessons near the crystal waters 
of the Kennebec and later he came with honors from 
a school of the region of his own nativity. The star of 
empire then was journeying westward, and he like many 
others followed. The star began to shine upon the val- 



148 

ley of the Mississippi. This valley was his destination. 
He came to St. Louis and became connected with newspa- 
per work, but, decided on the ministry for his profession. 
And although his father had been a Congregational min- 
ister, he allied himself with the Presbyterians. He went 
back east to a theological seminary but in less than two 
years was again in St. Louis. Here a religious newspaper 
was established by some parties and he was given its man- 
agement. This was the St. Louis Observer, the publica- 
tion of which was commenced toward the end of 1833. 
For quite a while all things went well but after a time 
editorials began to appear directed against slavery. Mis- 
souri being then a slave state, public sentiment immediate- 
ly became aroused against the author and while the tenor 
of these editorials was simply in favor of what he called 
''gradual emancipation,^' yet the state of the public mind 
was such at that day that not alone did the slave-holders 
and their friends and partisans meditate violence, but 
many of the warmest friends and supporters of Love joy 
and the Observer began to express their fears of the re- 
sult ; these friends even going so far as to communicate to 
him their willingness to allow this subject to be passed 
over in silence. Having simply advocated "gradual 
emancipation, ' ' in which as he further admitted and insist- 
ed editorially that "the rights of all classes of our citizens 
should be respected" he felt of course that popular opinion 
in the shape of popular menace was unreasonable and that 
the timidity of friends was a sign of the instability of 
their characters. He knew that the great blot upon the 
Republic could only be erased by an educated, humane and 
liberal sentiment. He knew that this point could only be 



149 

reached througli agitation. And knowing then, what we 
all know and admit now, that within the law he had a 
right to propose a redress for what he conceived to be a 
grievance, Love joy certainly felt that the opposition to his 
agitation meant a curtailment of constitutional rights. In 
fact, he could feel nothing less in view of the expressed 
provision in the constitution of Missouri which said ' ' that 
every person may freely speak, write and print on any 
subject." He therefore declared a solemn protest against 
the attempt, as he wrote, "to frown down the liberty of 
the press and forbid the free expression of opinion. ' ' By 
these words he sounded the key-note for the emancipation 
of human thought. By these words he raised the war- 
cry for the disenthralment of the human mind. By these 
words he uttered the battle-shout for universal freedom 
of opinion for mankind. Thenceforth he entered upon 
that agitation that embraced within its scope the right to 
think, the right to speak, and the right to print anywhere 
and everywhere those thoughts that come upon the brain 
like sparks from some great central fire that burns upon 
the altar of Divinity. The question of the slavery of the 
black was merged in that far-reaching question of the lib- 
eration of the world. 

In the midst of the gravity of the situation, a negro was 
lynched in St. Louis. Love joy, in his Observer, expressed 
his opinion of mob law. Then his office was mobbed. He 
saved the press and moved it to Alton. A mob 
threw it into the river. A new press was obtained and the 
key-note of the agitation was re-sounded. For nearly a 
year, with varying fortunes, this agitation was continued, 
when, again a mob entered his office and destro^^ed his 

press and 



150 

material. A new press was obtained and the war-cry of 
the agitation w^as raised anew. The night it arrived a 
mob took it and threw it into the river. The fourth press 
was ordered and Love joy uttered the final battle-shout of 
the agitation, which though bringing death to end his own 
career, brought life for that career which showers bless- 
ings on a posterity which twines to-day and will forever 
twine a wreath for him on which will be the name of "Im- 
mortality." He resolved to make a last stand for prin- 
ciple. He had left a state where he was not protected in 
his property nor person. He came to another state be- 
cause he was seeking that protection. He came to Illinois 
because he expected here to find it and in order to become 
himself a man of Illinois. When he failed to find it he 
resolved still to be and if need be to die a man of Illinois. 
Hence he said with resolution, "I am determined to make 
my grave in Alton." When we think of this resolve we 
hail him, both in spirit and in truth, as verily a man of 
Illinois. On the night of November sixth, 1837, the fourth 
press landed in Alton. It was stored in a warehouse which 
stood near the Mississippi river. Alton then had a popu- 
lation of only twenty-five hundred people, and, owing to 
the lack of a regular police force in those early days of 
the city, sixty brave men volunteered their protection. 
This brave band stayed on duty all day on the seventh. 
Their conduct brought a lull in the tempest just before it 
began to spread in all its fury. Everything seemed quiet. 
And by night these volunteers thought their work com- 
pleted. They were about to go to their homes and fami- 
lies. The proprietor of the warehouse however expressed 
a desire that some should stay as a further precaution. 



151 

Twenty of these brave men stayed. Love joy was among 
them. These twenty whose heroic conduct will shine 
through time eternal became the guardians of the citadel 
in which were centered all the hopes and aspirations of a 
yearning people whose solicitude merits grateful recollec- 
tion by succeeding generations. These tAventy became 
the body guard of freedom. It was not long before their 
services were needed. In the clear moonlight a mob as- 
sembled outside the warehouse. The press was demanded 
with a threat of burning the building unless it was deliv- 
ered. In the consultation held among the defenders on 
the inside it was decided not to yield to this demand. The 
warehouse was made of stone with a shingle roof. Its 
north side faced a bluff across the street; its south side 
faced the river and opened directly on the levee. On the 
east side was a vacant lot where the mob assembled. The 
first attempt to storm the building was made at the north 
door facing the street. At this a shot was fired from the 
inside which killed a member of the unlawful assembly. 
Then a ladder was placed against the east side of the ware- 
house and a member of the mob with lighted torch mount- 
ed to fire the wooden roof. Love joy and two others left 
by a south door and ranged themselves in position to fire 
at the incendiary. There was a post on the levee, placed 
there to wind ropes around it in tying up boats. Love joy 
probably placed himself behind this post in order that he 
might be shielded from the bullets of the mob stationed 
to the northeast. But as there was a lumber pile directly 
east of this post behind which some of the assassins were 
concealed he unintentionally and unfortunately so 
placed himself as to be directly within the range 



152 

of their missiles. The assassins behind the lumber pile 
pierced him with five bullets. He ran into the warehouse, 
announced to his associates that he was shot and as they 
tenderly laid him doAvn he died a martyr to his cause at 
the exact age of thirty-five on that very day. Then the 
citadel was taken and the garrison, deprived of its leader, 
surrendered. The press was sunk beneath the waves of 
the Mississippi, the mob dispersed and next morning a 
widow and her little son received the dead body of a brave 
and loving husband, a brave and loving father ; and, while 
their tears in agony ran down their cheeks, the world 
heard of this martyr's tragic end and with his wife and 
boy in sympathetic strain it wept his fate but looked 
through all its tears with yet a smile, perhaps from resig- 
nation born and because it fancied that it saw the planting 
of the tree of liberty above that martyr's grave. Then 
they laid him 'neath the sod upon the hill above the Mis- 
sissippi's tide where Alton's bluff is laved by waters which 
unceasing currents bring and in whose gentle roar is 
heard the solemn dirge of ' ' The Man of Illinois. ' ' Eight 
and sixty years since then have passed. The slave is 
free. The tongue is free. The press is free. And these 
with fondest words of praise speak of "The Man of Illi- 
nois." And we, who by adoption or by birth claim title 
to this state, will never fail in counting o 'er the names of 
our distinguished great to mention him who was ''The 
Man of Illinois." 

The author in 1894 had quite an interview on this subject 
with the distinguished veteran, Col. J. R. Miles, who was one of 
four young men who accompanied the undertaker and Lovejoy's 
dead body home next morning after the tragic event. 



153 



SLAVERY IN ILLINOIS. 

"Whilst Illinois was never a slave state in the strict 
sense in which the states of the south were regarded as 
slave states, yet, in various forms both negro and Indian 
slavery existed on the soil of our state from shortly after 
its discovery until the ultimate settlement of the question 
in the middle of the nineteenth century. 

After the grant was made to the Company of the West 
or the Eoyal India Company, the chief engineer, Renault, 
in 1719 left France with some miners destined for the 
French possessions in the new world. In addition, he 
brought ''five hundred slaves" obtained in the West In- 
dies for the purpose of developing the minerals in the 
Illinois country.^ 

The very earliest records, while they do not throw 
much light on the status of this institution of slavery, yet 
show conclusively that its existence was continued and en- 
couraged. In 1787, when the ordinance of that year was 
passed, a will was made by James Moore in which he tells 
what disposition is to made of his negroes Bingo and Ju- 
dith, showing from these record entries that the institution 
received not only popular toleration but also absolute 
recognition. To remedy this state of affairs, the ordin- 
ance of 1787 provided that "neither slavery nor involun- 
tary servitude, ' ' except as a punishment for crimes, should 
ever exist on the soil of the Northwest Territory. Yet, in 

a. Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, 1. 



154 

spite of the official attempt to blot out the institution or 
at least prevent its growth thereafter, it remained in vari- 
ous forms and as a political question was left for many 
years to harass the minds of the citizens of the state. 
While the intent of the ordinance was plain enough, yet 
the adherents of slavery found a subterfuge in the pro- 
vision which retained to the French and Canadian inhabit- 
ants their laws and customs and the further provision 
that allowed the return of fugitives to the original states, 
where such labor or service could be lawfully claimed. 
As the French inhabitants, from time immemorial, had 
recognized the institution, it was virtually a part of their 
law^s and customs. And on these provisions, the oppo- 
nents to a change based their arguments. On these argu- 
ments were based the laws passed by the Indiana and Illi- 
nois Territories on this subject. These laws virtually em- 
braced the allow^ance of a modified form. These early en- 
actments allowed an immigrant to bring his slaves with 
him. If when the slave was of age he would sign an 
agreement to serve his master, this indenture could be held 
to specific performance. If the slave did not consent to 
make such an agreement, he might be sent from the terri- 
tory in sixty days. The children who were under age were 
taken before an officer and registered, by which act they 
were bound until they were thirty-two years old. In at- 
tempting to evade the direct proposition of countenancing 
slavery, a system of indentured and registered servants 
grew up which circumvented the intent of the framers 
of the ordinance of 1787. Thus it came to pass that 
in Illinois regulations were made, which in their severity 
flavored of all the tyranny of the slave system. 



155 

If a negro or mulatto did not have a certificate of free- 
dom he was deemed a runaway slave and on arrest could 
be sold for one year as a punishment. When we ponder 
on the stringency of the laws which allowed the whipping 
of slaves or servants for simply coming upon planta- 
tions or for assembling at dances, it seems to us at this day 
as if Illinois, though born in the days when the cradle of 
liberty was rocking at its fullest, certainly passed through 
a harsh infancy. And when we learn that these whip- 
pings were to be inflicted the day after judgment unless 
the same happened to be Sunday and in that case to be 
postponed to the day after, we are really led to know to 
what a farcical extent an evasion of law and good morals 
may lead. The pretense of thus being too good to dese- 
crate the Sabbath becomes a veritable burlesque when 
viewed in the light in which one would see a human brute 
administering corporal punishment to a weaker creature 
whose misfortune of birth is his greatest offense. 

The constitution of 1818 provided against slavery and 
involuntary servitude and even tried to regulate in its 
terms the matter of indentured service. This did not seem 
to settle the matter however. The Black Laws of 1819, in 
the first year of the state period, followed the Black Laws 
of the territorial period, which followed the Black Code or 
Le Code Noir of France. The admission of Missouri as a 
free or slave state in 1820 was a matter which kept alive 
the question. The agitation was continued and in the 
campaign which elected Governor Coles in 1822 the issue 
was at fever heat. On account of a factional division in 
the ranks of the pro-slavery party, Coles, though in 



156 

the minority, was elected Governor by a plurality vote. In 
his message he took a decided stand on the slavery ques- 
tion but the legislature in 1823 made an attempt to amend 
the constitution, which however was not adopted by the 
people to whom the question was submitted in 1824. 

After the Lovejoy assassination in 1837, the matter in 
its various phases began to be tested in the courts. Nu- 
merous cases were tried and appealed. 

At the December term, 1845, the Supreme Court of Illi- 
nois decided in effect that the descendants of the old 
French slaves born after the ordinance of 1787 could not 
be held to slavery.^ This was practically a decisive case. 
Edwards says, "since that time the State of Illinois has 
been freed from the evils of slavery."^ Reynolds says, 
' ^ This decision liberated all the French slaves in the coun- 
try. "^ 

The constitution of 1848 provided "There shall be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, ex- 
cept as a punishment for crimes, whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted. ' ' 

In 1849 the supreme court practically decided the in- 
validity of the fugitive slave law.^ 

By act of the legislature of February twelfth, 1853, it 
was again attempted "to prevent the immigration of free 
negroes. ' '® 

a. Jarrot v. Jarrot, 2 Gilman, 1. 

b. Edwards, Hist, of 111., 184. 

c. Reynolds, My Own Times, 209. 

d. See ante, p. 128. 
6. Act of 1853, p. 57. 



157 

The whole matter was settled on February seventh, 
.1865, when the Black Laws were repealed, including the 
act of February twelfth, 1853 -^ and when the constitution 
of 1870 was adopted, after this legislative settlement and 
the nation had passed through the great Civil War, by 
which the matter of slavery was forever finally determined 
in all of the states, this constitution did not deem it neces- 
sary to make mention of the subject. 

Illinois was the first state in the union to ratify the 
thirteenth amendment to the national constitution in 1865. 
In 1867 it ratified the fourteenth and in 1869 the fifteenth. 

For further information the act is given entitled '*AN 
ACT respecting free Negroes, Mulattoes, Servants and 
Slaves," commonly known as the famous ''Black Laws." 

a. Lraws of 1865, p. 105. 



158 

^^AN ACT respecting free Negroes, Mulattoes, Servants and 

Slaves. 

Approved, March 30, 1819. 

[Sect. 1.] Be it enacted hy the people of the state 
of Illinois represented in the gemral asscmUy, That from 
and after the passage of this act, no black or mu- 
latto person shall be permitted to settle or reside in this 
state, unless he or she shall first produce a certificate, 
signed by some judge or clerk of some court in the United 
States, of his or her actual freedom; which certificate, 
shall have the seal of such court affixed to it ; on produc- 
ing the same to the clerk of the circuit court of the county 
in which he shall intend to settle, it shall be the duty of 
such clerk to make an entry thereof, and endorse a certifi- 
cate on the original certificate, stating the time the same 
was entered in his office, and the name and description of 
the person producing the same ; after which it shall be law- 
ful for such free negro or mulatto to reside in this state. 

Sect. 2. And he it further enacted, That it shall be 
the duty of all free negroes and mulattoes, who shall come 
to reside in this state after the first day of June next, 
and having a family of his or her own, and having a cer- 
tificate as mentioned in the first section of this act, to 
give to the clerk of the circuit court at the time of mak- 
ing an entry of his certificate, a description, with the 
name and ages of his, her or their family, which shall 



159 

be stated by the clerk in the entry made by him of such 
certificate; and the clerk shall also state the same on the 
original certificate : Provided however, That nothing con- 
tained in this or the preceding section of this act, shall be 
construed to prevent the overseers of the poor in any town- 
ship, from causing any such free negro or mulatto to be 
removed who shall come into this state contrary to the pro- 
visions of the act concerning the poor. 

Sect. 3. And he it further enacted, That it shall not 
be lawful for any person or persons to bring into this state 
after the passage of this act, any negro or mulatto, who 
shall be a slave or held to service at the time, for the pur- 
pose of emancipating or setting at liberty any such negro 
or mulatto ; and any person or persons, who shall so bring 
in any such negro or mulatto for the purpose aforesaid, 
shall give a bond to the county commissioners of the 
county where such slave or slaves are emancipated, in the 
penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned that such 
person so emancipated by him, shall not become a charge 
on any county in this state ; and every person neglecting 
or refusing to give such bond, shall forfeit and pay the 
sum of two hundred dollars for each negro or mulatto so 
emancipated or set at liberty, to be recovered by action of 
debt before any court competent to try the same, to be 
sued for in the name of the county commissioners of the 
county, where the same shall happen, to the use of the 
county. 

Sect. 4. And he it further enacted, That every black 
or mulatto person, (slaves and persons held to service 
excepted) residing in this state at the passage of this 



160 

act, shall on or before the first day of June next, enter his 
or their name (unless they have heretofore entered the 
same,) together with the name or names of his or her fam- 
ily, with the clerk of the circuit court of the county in 
which they reside, together with the evidence of his or her 
freedom ; which shall be entered on record by the said 
clerk, together with a description of all such persons ; and 
thereafter the clerk's certificate of such record shall be 
sufficient evidence of his or her freedom : — Provided never- 
theless, That nothing in this act contained, shall be con- 
strued to bar the lawful claim of any person or persons to 
any such negro or mulatto. 

Sect. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall not 
be lawful for any person or persons residing in this state 
after the first day of June next, to hire, or in any wise em- 
ploy any black or mulatto person, unless such person shall 
have one of the certificates aforesaid ; and any person who 
shall hire or employ any black or mulatto person contrary 
to the provisions of this section, shall pay the sum of one 
dollar and fifty-cents for each day they shall hire or employ 
any such black or mulatto person, recoverable before any 
justice of the peace, or court competent to try the same, 
in the name of the county commissioners of the county 
where the offence may be committed ; one third thereof to 
the person giving the information, and the other two-thirds 
to the use of the county; which said two-thirds shall be 
paid to the owner or owners of the black or mulatto person, 
if any there shall be, and apply for the same. 

Sect. 6. And he it further enacted. That if any 



161 

person or persons, shall harbor or secrete any black or 
mulatto person, the same being a slave or owing service or 
labor to any other person or persons, and knowing the 
same, or shall in any wise hinder or prevent the lawful 
owner or owners of such slaves or servants from retaking 
and possessing his or their slave or servant, shall be deem- 
ed guilty of felony, and upon conviction thereof, before 
any court competent to try the same, shall suffer the pains 
and penalties prescribed by law for persons guilty of re- 
ceiving stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen. 

Sect. 7. And he it further enacted, That every black 
or mulatto person who shall be found in this state, and not 
having such a certificate as is required by this act, shall be 
deemed a runaway slave or servant ; and it shall be lawful 
for any inhabitant of this, to take such black or mulatto 
person and carry them before some justice of the peace; 
and should such black or mulatto person not produce such 
certificate as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of such justice 
to cause such black or mulatto person, to be committed to 
the custody of the sheriff the county, who shall keep such 
black or mulatto person, and in three days after receiving 
them, shall advertise them at the door of the court house, 
and shall transmit a notice and cause the same to be adver- 
tised for six weeks in some public newpaper, printed near- 
est to the place of apprehending such black person or mu- 
latto, stating a description of the most remarkable features 
of such supposed runaway ; and if such person, so commit- 
ted, shall not procure a certificate or other evidence of their 
freedom within the time aforesaid, it shall be the duty 



162 

of the sheriff to hire them out for the best price he can get, 
after having given five days previous notice thereof, from 
month to month, for the space of one year. — And if no 
owner shall appear and substantiate their claim before the 
expiration of the year, the sheriff shall give a certificate to 
such black or mulatto person, who on producing the same 
to the next circuit court of the county, may obtain a cer- 
tificate from the court, stating the facts, and that the per- 
son shall be deemed a free person, unless they shall be law- 
fully claimed by their proper owner or owners thereafter. 
And as a reward to the taker up of such negro, there shall 
be paid by the owner, if any, before he shall receive him 
from the sheriff, ten dollars, and the owner shall moreover 
pay to the sheriff for the justice, two dollars, and reason- 
able costs for carrying such runaway to the sheriff; and 
shall also pay the sheriff all fees for keeping such runaway 
as other prisoners: Provided however, That the proper 
owner, if any there be, shall be entitled to the hire of any 
such runaway from the sheriff, after deducting the ex- 
penses of the same : And provided also, That the taker up 
shall have a right to claim any reward which the owner 
shall have offered for the apprehension of such runaway ; 
should any taker up claim such offered reward, he shall 
not be entitled to the allowance made by this act. 

Sect. 8. And he it further enacted, That in case 
any black or mulatto person shall not be claimed by the 
owner in the time aforesaid, and such person shall have 
obtained a certificate from the court aforesaid, they 
shall receive all the amount of the wages for which they 



163 

may have been hired, after paying the expenses ; and any 
person applying to the proper authority as provided by 
the laws of the United States, or of this state, for judging 
in such cases for reclaiming any black or mulatto person 
as his, her, or their slave or servant, and whose character 
for veracity, is not such as to satisfy any judge or justice 
of the peace, or other proper authority, that the oath or 
representation of such claimant is entitled to credit; and 
should such claimant be a stranger, it will be necessary 
that such authority should be made satisfied that such 
claimant or claimants are citizens of the United States, and 
that they are entitled to such credit as is before required, 
before they act thereon, otherwise than securing those 
claimed, until a decision can be had therein; and should 
any person or persons fraudulently obtain possession of 
any free negro or mulatto, by false swearing before any 
competent authority, such person or persons so offending, 
shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and on conviction there- 
of, shall be liable to suffer the penalties prescribed by law 
for such offences. 

Sect. 9. And he it further enacted, That any person 
or persons, who shall forcibly take and carry out of 
this state any negro or mulatto, (slaves excepted by their 
owners,) owing service or labor to any person in this 
state, or who shall forcibly take out of this state, any 
free negro or mulatto having gained a legal settlement 
in this state, shall forfeit and pay for every such 
offence the sum of one thousand dollars to the party 
injured, to be recovered in the name of the people of the 



164 

state of Illinois, by action of debt in any court having 
cognizance of the same: Provided hoivever, That this 
section shall not be construed so as to prevent the owner 
or owners, or their agents, from removing their servants, 
who shall runaway and be found in this state, to any state 
or t;erritory where they may belong, nor to persons who 
shall be travelling or removing their servants through this 
state, to any other state or territory. 

Sect. 10. And he it further enacted, That servants 
shall be provided by the master with wholesome and suf- 
ficient food, clothing, and lodging, and at the end of their 
service, if they shall not have contracted for any reward, 
food, clothing and lodging, shall receive from him one new 
and complete suit of clothing suited to the season of the 
year, to-wit : a coat, waist coat, pair of breeches, and shoes, 
two pair of stockings, two shirts, a hat and blanket. 

Sect. 11. And he it further enacted, That the benefit 
of the said contract of service, shall be assignable by the 
master to any person being a citizen of this state, to whom 
the servant shall in the presence of a justice of the peace, 
freely consent, that it shall be assigned; the said justice, 
attesting such free consent in writing; and shall also 
pass to the executors, administrators and legatees of the 
master- 
Sect. 12. And he it further enacted, That any such 
servant being lazy, disorderly, guilty of misbehaviour 
to his master, or master's family, shall be corrected by 
stripes, on order from a justice of the county, wherein 
he resides; or refusing to work, shall be compelled 



165 

thereto in like manner, and moreover shall serve two days 
for every one he shall have so refused to serve, or shall 
otherwise have lost, without sufficient justification; all 
necessary expences incurred by any master for appre- 
hending and bringing home any obsconding servant, shall 
be repaid by further services, after such rates as the cir- 
cuit court of the county shall direct, unless such servant 
shall give security, to be approved of by the court for the 
payment in money within six months after he shall be free 
from service, and shall accordingly pay the same. 

Sect. 13. And he it further enacted, That if any 
master shall fail in the duties prescribed by this act, or 
shall be guilty of injurious demeanor towards his servant, 
it shall be redressed on motion, by the circuit court of the 
county wherein the servant resides, who may hear and de- 
termine such cases in a summary way, making such orders 
thereupon, as in their judgment will relieve the party in- 
jured in future. 

Sect. 14. And he it further enacted. That all con- 
tracts between masters and servants, during the time of 
service, shall be void. 

Sect. 15. And he it further enacted, That the cir- 
cuit court of every county shall, at all times, receive 
the complaints of servants, being citizens of any of the 
United States of America, who reside within the jurisdic- 
tion of such court, against their masters or mistresses, 
alledging undeserved or immoderate correction, insuffi- 
cient allowances of food, raiment, or lodging, and may 
hear and determine such case in a summary way, making 



166 

such orders thereupon as in their judgment will relieve 
the party injured in future ; and may also, in the same 
manner hear and determine complaints of masters and 
mistresses against their servants, for desertion without 
good cause, and may oblige the latter for loss thereby 
occasioned, to make restitution by further services after 
the expiration of the time, for which they had been bound. 

Sect. 16. And he it further enacted, That if any 
servant shall at any time bring in goods or money, during 
time of their service, shall by gift, or other lawful means, 
acquire goods or money, they shall have the property, and 
benefit thereof, to their own use ; and if any servant shall 
be sick or lame, and so become useless or chargeable, his 
or her master or owner, shall maintain such servant, until 
his or her time of service shall be expired; and if any 
master or owner, shall put away any lame or sick servant, 
under pretence of freedom, and such servant becomes 
chargeable to the county, such master or owner, shall for- 
feit and pay thirty dollars, to the overseers of the poor of 
the county, wherein such offence shall be committed, to 
the use of the poor of the county, recoverable with costs, 
by action of debt in any circuit court ; and moreover, shall 
be liable to the action of the said overseers of the poor at 
the common law for damages. 

Sect. 17. And he it further enacted, That no negro, 
mulatto, or Indian, shall at any time purchase any servant, 
other than of their own complexion, and if any of the per- 
sons aforesaid, shall nevertheless presume to purchase a 



167 

white servant, such servant shall immediately become free, 
and shall be so held, deemed and taken. 

Sect. 18. And he it further enacted, That no person 
shall buy, sell or receive of, to, or from any servant or 
slave any coin or commodity without leave or consent of 
the master or owner of such slave or servant; and any 
person so offending shall forfeit and pay to the master 
or owner of such slave or servant four times the value 
of the thing so bought, sold or recovered, to be recovered 
with costs of suit before any court having cognizance of 
the same ; and every servant upon the expiration of his or 
her time shall be entitled to a certificate from the clerk of 
the court of the county where such servant is indentured 
or registered, and such certificate shall indemnify any per- 
son for hiring or employing such person. 

Sect. 19. And he it further enacted, That in all 
cases of penal laws where free persons are punishable by 
fine, servants shall be punished by whipping, after the 
rate of twenty lashes for every eight dollars, so that no 
servant shall receive more than forty lashes at any one 
time, unless such offender can procure some person to pay 
the fine. 

Sect. 20. And he it further enacted, That every 
servant upon the expiration of his or her time, and proof 
thereof made before the circuit court of the county, where 
he or she last served, shall have his or her freedom re- 
corded and a certificate thereof, under the hand of the 
clerk, which shall be sufficient to indemnify any person 
for entertaining or hiring such servant; and if such 



168 

certificate should happen to be torn or lost, the clerk, 
upon request shall issue another, reciting therein the loss 
of the former. 

Sect. 21. And be it further enacted, That if any 
slave or servant shall be found at a distance of ten miles 
from the tenement of his or her master, or the person with 
whom he or she lives, without a pass or some letter of 
token, whereby it may appear that he or she is proceeding 
by authority from his or her master, employer or overseer, 
it shall and may be lawful for any person to apprehend 
and carry him or her before a justice of the peace, to be 
by his order punished with stripes, not exceeding thirty- 
five, at his discretion. 

Sect. 22. And he it further enacted, That if any 
slave or servant shall presume to come and be upon the 
plantation, or at the dwelling of any person whatsoever, 
without leave from his or her owner, not being sent upon 
lawful business, it shall be lawful for the owner of such 
plantation, or dwelling house to give or order such slave 
or servant, ten lashes on his or her bare back. 

Sect. 23. And he it further enacted. That riots, routs, 
unlawful assemblies, trespasses and seditious speeches, by 
any slave or slaves, servant or servants, shall be punished 
with stripes, at the discretion of a justice of the peace, not 
exceeding thirty-nine, and he who will, may apprehend 
and carry him, her or them before such justice. 

Sect. 24. And he it further enacted, That if any 
person or persons shall permit or suffer any slave or 
slaves, servant or servants of color, to the number of 



169 

three or more, to assemble in his, her or their house, out 
house, yard or shed for the purpose of dancing or revell- 
ing, either by night or by day, the person or persons so 
offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty dollars, 
with costs, to any person or persons who will sue for and 
recover the same, by action of debt or indictment, in any 
court of record proper to try the same. 

Sect. 25. And he it further enacted, That it shall be 
the duty of all coroners, sheriffs, judges and justices of 
the peace, who shall see or known of, or be informed of 
any such assemblage of slaves or servants, immediately to 
commit such slaves or servants to the jail of the county; 
and on view or proof thereof, order each and every such 
slave or servant to be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine 
stripes, on his or her bare back, on the day next succeed- 
ing such assemblage, unless it shall happen on a Sunday, 
then on the Monday following ; which said stripes shall be 
inflicted by any constable of the township, if there should 
be one therein, or otherwise by any person or persons 
whom the said justices shall appoint, and who shall be 
willing so to inflict the same: — Provided however. That 
the provisions hereof shall not apply to any persons of 
color, who may assemble for the purpose of amusement, 
by permission of their masters first had in writing, on 
condition that no disorderly conduct is made use of by 
them in such assemblage."^ 

a. Foregoing is a copy of Act 1819, pp. 354 and suite, with 
grammatical and typographical mistakes as in original. 



170 



CARLIN 1838-1842. 

On December seventh, 1838, Thomas Carlin was inau- 
gurated as Governor. Unlike his predecessor, Governor 
Duncan, who was opposed to overdoing the matter of in- 
ternal improvements on account of the wastefulness and 
extravagance attendant thereon, Carlin urged the wisdom 
of the policy. Questions of national politics had been 
drawn into the campaign and the national banking sys- 
tem to which Carlin was opposed Avas one of these. The 
legislature, which by the way was the last one that met at 
Vandalia prior to the removal of the capital to Spring- 
field, continued the policy of internal improvements, 
though it placed itself on record by resolution against the 
Governor's financial views and in favor of the national 
banking system. The sale of bonds for state improve- 
ments and the blundering operations on the part of the 
agents entailed much loss to the state government. The 
agreement to receive payments in installments or deferred 
payments meant a loss of interest and the sale of some of 
the bonds on credit to banks which failed meant an en- 
tire loss. Some of the bonds, which were placed on sale 
in London, sold for less than their face value and before 
even those returns were made, on account of the failure 
of the firm placing them, were reduced to mere 
creditors' dividends for the state. The Governor ex- 
perienced a change of sentiment on this subject and 



171 

in a message to the legislature lie pointed out the ruinous 
tendency of the policy to overdo the system. While the 
struggle was continued for the maintenance of the system 
in its entirety, enough legislators were of the opinion that 
it should be curtailed. And so a readjustment began, 
which virtually meant the beginning of the end of that 
stupendous system which found its birth in the fertile 
brain of legislative dreamers, urged forward by the il- 
lusive hopes of constituencies who in those days, as now, 
were illured by thoughts of prosperity which though laid 
on uncertain foundations should increase with lightning- 
like rapidity. More than $12,000,000 had been expended 
since the movement had been set on foot. It narrowed 
itself do^vn under this administration to the matter of 
completing the railroad from Meredosia to Springfield for 
which an appropriation was secured. But this last sur- 
vivor of the internal improvement wreck, too, yielded be- 
fore the end of this administration. The state then 
placed it into the hands of lessees but in 1847 it was sold 
for $21,100. Dr. Bernard Stuve says : ' ' Nothing further 
was ever done toward completing any of the rest of the 
Avorks, which were scattered in detached parcels over the 
State, where excavations and embankments were in evi- 
dence for many years as monuments of a costly legislative 
folly, "a 

a. Trans. 111. State Hist. Soc. 1902, p. 125. 
For Internal Improvement System see also: 

Peck, Gazetteer of 111. — Ford, Hist, of 111. — Brown, Hist, 
of 111.— Davidson & Stuve, Hist, of 111.— Moses, 111. Hist, 
and Stat, and various Session Laws. 



172 

The Illinois and Michigan Canal which was closely 
allied to the system has practically pursued its course 
alone with varying fortune up to the present time and in 
its decay serves as a reminder of the dreams of wealth 
and glory of the earlier days of the state. The central 
railroad, another off-spring of this unfortunate birth, 
fared better in after years when the national government 
came to its assistance.^ The amount expended on the 
Illinois and Michigan Canal from the date of its beginning 
in 1836 to the end of this administration was nearly $5,- 
000,000. After this, work was suspended on account of 
the lack of funds until in 1845 the state provided for a 
loan of $1,600,000 for its completion and the whole mat- 
ter was turned over to a set of trustees who were to repre- 
sent the state and the bond holders. It was completed 
in 1848 so that boats could pass the entire length from La 
Salle to Chicago. In 1871, all incumbrances settled, it 
was turned over to the state by the canal trustees. Up 
to this time its receipts seemed to have kept down the ex- 
penses. In after years the expenses exceeded the tolls. 
The construction of railroads and new methods of trans- 
portation have largely diverted the carrying trade to 
faster channels. A work on similar lines has in recent 
years been undertaken and completed by the Chicago 
Drainage District in the shape of a sanitary canal 
from Chicago to Joliet which has involved an expendi- 
ture of more than $50,000,000. An effort is also be- 
ing made to establish a deep water-way by means of 
this route down and through the Illinois and Miss- 

a. Land Grant to Illinois Central. 



173 



issippi rivers to the Gulf of Mexico by which large steam- 
ers may be enabled to carry the internal commerce of the 
country to its northern-most and southern-most bounds; 
while in connection with the Panama Canal project this 
interior water-way with its northern and southern outlets 
would exercise a tremendous influence on the commerce 
of the whole nation and thereby it may be that the dreams 
of the early pioneers may yet find a realization before the 
present generation shall have gone to join them. Thus, 
this monument, having outlived the other state creations 
of contemporaneous birth, may bring about the fruition of 
the hopes of both the past and the present. 

During this administration the following counties were 
formed : 

Marshall January 19, 1839. Act of 1839, p. 43 

Brown February 1, '' '' *' 52 

Du Page '' 9, " '' '' 73 

Dane (name changed to 
Christian)^. . . .February 15, 



Logan 

Menard 

Scott 

Carroll 

Lee 

Jersey 

Williamson .... 

De Witt March 

Lake " 



15, 
15, 
16, 

22, 
27, 
28, 
28, 
1, 
1, 



104 
104 
104 
126 
160 
170 
208 
110 
199 
216 



a. Changed February 1, 1840. Act of 1840, p. 80. 



174 



1841, 



Hardin March 2, 1839. Act of 1839, p. 234 

Stark .... 
Henderson . 
Mason .... 

Piatt 

Grundy . . , 
Kendall . . , 
Richland . . 
Woodford . 



229 
67 
69 
71 
74 
75 
77 
84 



.January 20, 1841. 

. " 20, 

. " 27, 

February 17, 

19, 

24, 

27, 

On the fourth day of July, 1839, when the capital was 
moved to Springfield, the state was divided into eighty- 
seven counties and the population the year following was 
476,183 as shown by the census of 1840. 

During the latter part, toward the close, of this admin- 
istration, the Mormon troubles began to arrive which ex- 
tended into the next administration. 



175 



THE MORMONS a 

In 1829, near Palmyra, New York, Joseph Smith claim- 
ed to have discovered or unearthed some gold tablets or 
plates with inscriptions upon them and that he did this in 
pursuance to a revelation made to him by the Angel 
Maroni. This discovery attracted some attention in the 
locality, and others, who claimed to have received mani- 
festations, became ready to vouch for the genuineness of 
the discovery. Smith made a translation of the inscrip- 
tions using what was called a seer stone. This transla- 
tion was formed into what has since become known as the 
Book of Mormon. Human credulity brought some be- 
lievers and in 1830 we find Smith and his associates form- 
ing into a church at Manchester. Later, they established 
themselves near Cleveland, Ohio, wiiere Smith established 
a bank at a place called Kirtland. After the failure of 
this project, he and his followers went to Independence, 
Missouri. Here troubles soon arose between the Mormons 
and the Gentiles, which led to many legal squabbles until 
the Mormons began to defy the authority of the state. 
Then the Governor called out the militia for the purpose 
of placing them into submission. The leaders were arrest- 
ed and court-martialed ; were saved through the clemency 
of General Doniphan, but were held by a Circuit Judge on 
a number of charges. The rest were allowed to go on condi- 

a. They call themselves the Latter Day Saints. 



176 

tion that they leave the state. The leaders also making 
their escape, the entire Mormon force migrated to Illinois 
in 1839. They settled in Hancock County and founded 
the town of Nauvoo. Here difficulties soon arose between 
them and the Gentiles, similar to those which had taken 
place in Missouri. They became offensively officious in 
the matter of politics and on account of their numbers and 
political strength were humored by the politicians, and 
through this became a still greater disturbing power. The 
legislature of 1840- '41 granted a charter to Nauvoo 
which clothed it with almost plenary local jurisdiction. 
It was allowed not alone to pass ordinances but to estab- 
lish courts with far-reaching powers and organize its 
militia into the Nauvoo Legion. Under this charter, the 
city was organized in 1841 and Joseph Smith was elected 
its mayor. During this year, in the fall, the Governor 
of Missouri requested that Smith and the leaders be re- 
turned as fugitives and Governor Carlin issued a warrant 
of arrest, which however was not executed. In 1842, the 
writ was issued again by Governor Carlin. Smith this 
time was arrested, taken before Judge Douglas on a writ 
of habeas corpus, but discharged on the ground that inas- 
much as the warrant had been returned unexecuted be- 
fore, it had become of no further force. On the heels of 
this, the Nauvoo council passed an ordinance giving its 
municipal court jurisdiction over arrests, by no matter 
what process made, within its limits. 

A continuation of these complications, thus begun, was 
carried on under the succeeding administration. 



177 



FORD 1842-1846. 

On December eighth, 1842, Thomas Ford was inau- 
gurated as Governor. At this time, the Mormons numbered 
about sixteen thousand in this state. Governor Ford, in 
his history,^ says, ' ' the Mormons were desirous of having 
the cause of arrest legally tested in the federal court." 
Hence, he issued a new warrant on the strength of which 
Smith appeared in Springfield and on a habeas corpus pro- 
ceeding he was discharged by Judge Pope of the federal 
court. On account of political intrigues and factional 
differences in the church, this discharge did not termin- 
ate the troubles which were destined to harass this admin- 
istration for some time longer. A new indictment was 
found in Missouri against Smith in 1843 for an attempt to 
murder the Governor and on the seventh of June a requis- 
ition was made on the Governor of Illinois, who issued a 
warrant which was given to a constable of Hancock Coun- 
ty to serve, who, after making the arrest, turned his pris- 
oner over to the Missouri officer from whom he was res- 
cued by an armed body of Mormons who took him back 
to Nauvoo where he was discharged by the municipal 
court, which had been clothed with such extraordinary 
judicial powers. The Missouri official called upon the 
Governor to call out the militia, which however he de- 
clined to do. 

These successes led the Mormons to become exceedingly 

a. Ford, Hist, of 111., 313. 



178 

arrogant. The council provided by ordinance that if any 
one should try to make arrests on foreign writs, the of- 
fender should be imprisoned for life without hope of par- 
don from the Governor, unless the mayor of Nauvoo con- 
sented. This act amounted practically to the setting up 
of a separate government within the limits of our state 
government unprovided for by our constitution and 
wholly repugnant to the groundwork of our institutions. 
Smith himself tried to assume the most autocratic pre- 
rogatives. He established a system of local autocracy, 
created a recorder's office through which titles were to 
pass and monopolized the sale of liquors to himself and 
even went so far as to announce a candidacy for the presi- 
dency of the United States. These high-handed meas- 
ures divided the Mormons themselves into factions. One 
of these factions, having attempted to issue a newspaper 
in order to make the outside world acquainted with the 
wrongs that were being perpetrated in Nauvoo, had the 
press destroyed. It was impossible to convict anyone in 
the municipal court for this outrage. In June, 1844, the 
Governor having been requested by the citizens of Car- 
thage in the county of Hancock, where Nauvoo was lo- 
cated, to call out the militia to assist in restoring order. 
Governor Ford visited the county in person, where he met 
a considerable armed force ready to aid in the establish- 
ment of legal process. Nearly all the offenses on the 
calendar of crime were charged against the Mormons, 
which, of course, were denied by them under the pretext 
of religious persecution. The Governor ordered arrests 
to be made, with the assurance that if the accused sur- 



179 

rendered they would be guaranteed a fair trial, but in 
case of resistance, that the entire state militia would be 
called into requisition. The mayor and council appeared 
and entered into recognizances. Joseph Smith and his 
brother Hiram however were arrested for treason and 
were sent to the county jail to await their trial. As it 
was reported that the counterfeiting of money was being 
undertaken in Nauvoo, the Governor was asked to take 
the militia there from Carthage. This however was not 
done and the troops were disbanded. Three companies 
were allowed to remain, some of whom guarded the jail, 
the Governor himself going to Nauvoo to make a personal 
inspection. The popular feeling was one of extreme hos- 
tility to the prisoners and as soon as the Governor had 
left Carthage, a force was organized which broke into the 
jail and at the first volley killed Hiram Smith, the 
prophet's brother. Joseph Smith, the so-called prophet, 
although making a determined fight in his vain attempt to 
escape, was soon thereafter riddled with bullets. This oc- 
currence did not allay the hostility existing between Mor- 
mons and Gentiles and led to further strife between the 
contending forces. The people were clamoring for the ex- 
pulsion of, what they considered, a disturbing element 
from the state. Thousands of citizens were preparing to 
undertake this work and probably would have done so had 
not the Governor interfered. Those accused of being im- 
plicated in the mobbing of the Smiths were arraigned and 
acquitted in 1845. As the successor of Joseph Smith, 
Brigham Young succeeded to the head of the church. The 
warfare was kept up until through the intervention of the 



180 

Governor an agreement was arrived at by which the Mor- 
mons were to leave the state in the spring of 1846. Dur- 
ing the winter prior thereto, they made their arrange- 
ments to leave and by the middle of May sixteen thousand 
of them had gone on their way to the great west, where 
finally in 1847, they established themselves in the Great 
Salt Lake Valley. 

A minor portion of the Mormons, having been left in 
this state, caused some further disturbances which kept 
the military power of the state in activity until order was 
restored. 

Governor Ford, in his message, had recommended con- 
ciliatory measures with reference to the banks and in har- 
mony with his recommendation, a compromise bill was 
passed by the legislature requiring the state bank and the 
bank at Shawneetown to go into liquidation. The act of 
1845 also provided for the completion of the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal and to this end it provided for a loan of 
$1,600,000. 

The financial affairs of the state began to assume a 
better tone and on the whole the administration of 
Governor Ford was a very creditable one. In his his- 
tory. Ford says, *'I hope to be excused from saying any- 
thing in these memoirs in relation to my own personal 
quality and history. If it should ever be thought import- 
ant that a knowledge of such humble matters should be 
perpetuated, I will trust the task of doing it to other 
hands. "^ Although his historical work is strongly 
tinged with the partisanship of his time and while he 

a. Ford, Hist, of 111., 269. 



181 

himself is not always willing to render an account of 
others without allowing his temper to come to the surface, 
yet, the justice of history must accord to him an import- 
ant station in the history of this commonwealth. 

Under this administration the following counties were 
formed ; 

Massac February 8, 1843. Act of 1843, p. 74 

Moultrie " 16, '' " '' 83 

Cumberland March 2, ' ^ ' ' ' ' 94 

Pulaski " 3, " " '' 99 

The uncertainty, which had existed for a long time in 
the minds of many of the people in the northern portion 
of this state, as to whether they belonged to Illinois or 
Wisconsin was definitely settled in 1846. The legisla- 
ture of 1830- '31 had authorized Governor Reynolds to ap- 
point a commissioner to mark our state line at 42° 30' 
north latitude and John Messenger, an early-time sur- 
veyor, who had been the professor of mathematics in 
Peck's Seminary, did the work.^ But this does not seem 
to have ended the controversy between the state of Illinois 
and the territory of Wisconsin. In this controversy the 
sentiment of northern Illinois seemed to be rather in favor 
of the Wisconsin contention. The whole affair grew out 
of different constructions placed upon that part of the or- 
dinance of 1787, which provided, on the score of expedi- 
ency, that Congress "shall have authority to form one or 
two states in that part of the said territory which lies 
north of an east and west line drawn through the souther- 
ly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. ' ' The enabling act 

a. Reynolds, My Own Times, 319. 



182 

for the admission of Illinois in 1818, by which Congress 
fixed the boundary of Illinois at 42° 30', ought to have 
been decisive enough. But the agitation was continued 
on account of the disposition of the leading men of Wis- 
consin to claim all they could, reinforced by a strong 
northern Illinois sentiment, which arose out of the diver- 
sity of immigrations — the northern Illinois immigrants 
coming from New England and the southern Illinois im- 
migrants mainly from Kentucky and Virginia. Meetings 
were held and conventions even were called and the Wis- 
consin Territorial Governor, J. D. Doty, was conspicuously 
active in the early forties,^ even addressing a letter to the 
Governor of Illinois with regard to the matter.^ The 
entire dispute was set at rest by the enabling act of Con- 
gress of August sixth, 1846, which admitted Wisconsin 
as a state into the Union and through which the bound- 
ary between the two states remained at 42° 30' north lati- 
tude. 

Besides the foregoing acts, this adminstration was 
marked by the outbreak of the Mexican War. In this 
event of national importance, Illinois took a very conspic- 
uous part. Her soldiers were in the forefront of the most 
important battles fought on the soil of Mexico. Six regi- 
ments were contributed to the service with General James 
Shields at the head of the contingent. 

a. Brown, Hist, of 111., 353. 

b. Moses, 111. Hist, and Stat., 279. 
Radebaugh, The Boundary Dispute, etc., 137. 
Professor William Radebaugh presented a very exhaustive 

address on this subject before the Chicago Historical 
Society on May 19, 1904. 



183 



MEXICAN WAR. 

The Avar between the United States and Mexico was 
not the outgrowth of a sudden burst of passion. The 
ultimatum came after all the antecedent happenings had 
taken place in the channel from whence at last the inevit- 
able flows. 

After having floundered through the darkness of three 
centuries under Spanish rule, the country known as New 
Spain and afterward as Mexico, awakening from its pas- 
sive state, began to show signs of revolt. After sixty- 
four Spanish viceroys had occupied the position of Gov- 
ernor over this province and had imposed that autocratic 
poAver upon the natives which eventually drove them into 
restlessness, at length the spirit of discontent became a 
spirit of revolt. The standard of revolt was raised in 
1810 at Guanajuata by the famous revolutionist, Hidalgo. 
Although he w^as defeated and executed, after him came 
Morelos. He in turn was executed. Then came the 
''Liberator.^' Iturbide proclaimed the independence of the 
nation in 1821. But he was only allowed to rule by 
Spanish recognition. Independence had to be achieved 
again. And in 1822 Santa Anna proclaimed the Republic 
at Vera Cruz. Iturbide abdicated; left; returned; was 
shot in 1824. For the next decade this nation witnessed 
contested presidencies, the reaction of the church, the 
abolition of the constitution and the final consolidation 
of confederated states in a mongrel republic, with Santa 
Anna as its President, though its dictator in poAver and 



184 

practice. Texas, which had belonged to Mexico since the 
Florida and Louisiana purchases, refused to submit. In 
1836 she seceded from the Mexican confederacy and under 
the leadership of as brave a set of men as ever marched to 
war she achieved her independence. At the Alamo, the 
first great blow was struck which was avenged on the San 
Jacinto's banks, where Santa Anna was captured but re- 
leased upon the guarantee that Texas freedom should be 
recognized. Then Texas became a republic and was 
recognized by the United States in 1837 and then by Bel- 
gium, France and England. Mexico still continued to 
commit depredations on our trade although in 1831 she 
had agreed to cease. The United States and Mexican 
commissioners met for the purpose of squaring accounts. 
This was in 1840. By this time their depredations aggre- 
gated in the neighborhood of $6,000,000. Their own com- 
missioners themselves acknowledged $2,000,000. Three 
years later they acknowledged it all, thereby admitting 
their guilt and piracy. The promise was made to pay in 
$300,000 installments. They paid three of these and then 
refused to pay the balance. This was the situation in 
1845. This was the relationship existing when the matter 
of the annexation of Texas to the United States came up. 
It was therefore not the subsequent annexation alone that 
produced the Mexican War, but principally the antece- 
dent thefts committed by Mexican pirates on the seas, the 
refusal to treat and make redress, the consent later to a 
treaty by commissioners, but also its willful violation 
after it was made. In the war which resulted and in 
which a hundred thousand American patriots took a part, 
Illinois furnished six regiments with General Shields at 
the head. 



185 



GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS. 

Shields was born in Ireland in 1810. He came to this 
country when a mere lad and during the more than half 
century of his stay, till his death upon American soil, be- 
came to all intents and purposes as much an American as 
if he had been native born. In 1832 he settled in old Kas- 
kaskia and entered on the practice of the law. Old Kas- 
kaskia had been the territorial and state seat of govern- 
ment. It still retained its potency as the center of refine- 
ment or the ' ' Paris of the West. ' ' For more than a cen- 
tury it had been the military, civil, and literary center of 
the Mississippi valley. It was here that the beginnings 
of our history were made. It was here that the founda- 
tions of our commonwealth were laid. It was the Mecca 
for all who crossed the Alleghanies. It had encouraged 
immigration. It had contributed the larger share of the 
intellectual giants, among the pioneer great men, to the 
public service. It had installed Shadrach Bond as the 
first Governor of our state and had entertained a distin- 
guished foreign champion of the rights of man, and friend 
of American liberty, in the person of La Fayette. It 
was to this olden capital with the halo of its former 
pomp still hovering about it that Shields came to 
settle. Endowed with physical and mental vigor, with 
brilliancy and genius, he soon rose from station to 
station. He became a member of the legislature, auditor 
of state, judge of the supreme court and commissioner of 



186 

the United States Land Office. He was in the vigor of 
his youth at the age of thirty-six when the Mexican War 
broke out. At the outbreak he volunteered and became 
the Brigadier-General of the Illinois contingent. For 
more than a year the conflict lasted. In the north of 
Mexico from Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma westward 
to Monterey the intrepid fighters marched, and then across 
and down to Saltillo, Victoria and Tampico until they 
routed Santa Anna on the field of Buena Vista. In the 
south of Mexico, the conquering host mowed a swath of 
glory from the bay of Vera Cruz until they reached the 
heart and center and camped within the capital of Mex- 
ico. In this march and at the fight of Cerro Gordo, 
Shields was wounded. A canister ball passed through 
one of his lungs. In fact, passed entirely through his 
body from the front, coming out at the back, below his 
shoulder blade. His comrades carried him away to die 
as they feared. But a silk handkerchief was drawn 
through the wound and he recovered and lived to repre- 
sent three states successively in the United States Senate 
Chamber. He was mustered out in 1848 and was offered 
the Governorship of Oregon Territory but declined and 
was elected United States Senator from Illinois. He 
served till the close of his term in 1855 and then moved to 
Minnesota where on the admission of that state he became 
her United State Senator. From there he went to Cali- 
fornia in 1860. The Civil War broke out and he volun- 
teered. Became again a Brigadier and showed again his 
bravery, for none more fearless rode through the Valley of 
the Shenandoah. From California he went to Missouri and 
Missouri honored him and herself by electing him as her 
United States Senator. He died in 1879 at Ottumwa, Iowa. 



187 



FRENCH 1846-1849-1853. 

On December ninth, 1846, Augustus C. French was in- 
augurated as Governor. The proposition to call a con- 
stitutional convention had been submitted to a vote of the 
people and ratified. While the Governor's inaugural 
dealt Avith matters affecting the completion of the canal 
and the school law as his most important suggestions, a 
large part of public attention was occupied with the re- 
vision of the constitution. The constitutional convention 
made its revision from June seventh, 1847, to August 
thirty-first, 1847, after which it was submitted to a vote 
of the people on March sixth, 1848, and ratified. Inas- 
much as the term of the Governor, through the act of this 
convention and the adoption of the constitution, had been 
somewhat curtailed, it was felt due him that he should be 
re-elected and hence it was that at the first gubernatorial 
election held after the adoption of the new constitution, 
he received practically the whole vote. On January 
eighth, 1849, he was re-inaugurated. During his admin- 
istrations the following counties were formed : 

Saline February 25, 1847. Act of 1847, p. 34 

Kankakee " 11,1851. '' 1851, 30 

The constitution of 1848 provided that "no state bank 
shall hereafter be created. ' ' 

In 1850 the population was 851,470. 

The legislature of 1851 passed an act for the incorpora- 
tion of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. 



188 



THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 

In 1850 Congress granted lands in aid of the construc- 
tion of a railroad from Chicago to Mobile. After this 
grant, the legislature of Illinois incorporated the "Illinois 
Central Kailroad company,"^ which was to build a rail- 
road from ' * the southern terminus of the Illinois and Mich- 
igan canal, to a point at the city of Cairo, ' ' with branches. 
Alternate sections, for six miles in width on each side of 
the road, were ceded for the purpose of aiding through the 
sale of these lands. This act of the legislature, passed 
at the session of 1851, formulated terms for the construc- 
tion of this road. In pursuance of these enactments, a 
company took hold, agreeing to build the road within the 
time limit stated by law and to pay seven per cent of its 
gross earnings. The road and its branches were com- 
pleted before the close of 1856. The matter was taken 
hold of in earnest and the seven hundred miles of this 
early gigantic system were built in the space of five years. 
Two and one half millions of acres, approximately, were 
embraced in the congressional grant and these were nearly 
all sold to actual settlers. As the outcome of this great 
plan, the state became the recipient of an annual revenue 
of seven per cent on the gross earnings of a profitable 
business enterprise and its wild lands became the homes of 
thousands of settlers who have contributed to the up- 
building of the state. 

a. Act of 1851, p. 61. 



189 



MATTESON 1853-1857. 

In January, 1853, Joel A. Matteson was inaugurated as 
Governor. The legislature on February twelfth passed 
an act "to prevent the immigration of free negroes."^ 
The succeeding legislature is to be commended for a more 
meritorious proceeding in the adoption of "An act to es- 
tablish and maintain a uniform system of common 
schools." The history of the state, under this admin- 
istration, is that of an era of prosperity following on the 
heels of former financial depressions resultant from wild 
financial policies and preceding financial depressions that 
again came soon thereafter. The struggles of politicians 
occupied the theatre of public life and in this state, as in 
every other state in the Union, matters of local importance 
were dwarfed in the discussion of questions affecting na- 
tional politics. Illinois was full of rising and ambitious 
statesmen and this period more than any other in the his- 
tory of the state was marked by political discussions and 
wranglings. Many of those, who in later years became 
prominent in the affairs of the nation, were then engaged 
in measuring forensic swords on political battle-fields in 
this state. Party leaders and party followers were 
beginning to make different party alignments. The 
Lincolns and Douglases were appearing upon the 
scene and preliminary skirmishes were taking place 
that led to greater contests later. In the midst 
of all this came the birth of a new party in 1856. 

a. Act of 1853, p. 57. See ante p. 158. 



190 



BISSELL AND WOOD 1857-1861. 

On January twelfth, 1857, William H. Bissell was in- 
augurated as Governor. He had been in the Mexican 
War as the Colonel of the Second Illinois Regiment of Vol- 
unteers. After the close of the war he was three times 
elected to Congress. The sectional feeling between north 
and south was then already growing. In response to a 
speech made by a member from the south, who had at- 
tacked the conduct of the northern troops on the field of 
Buena Vista where an Indiana regiment had given way, 
he made an impassioned reply; he defended the northern 
troops and showed how his own regiment and others were 
on hand before the Mississippi regiment, which was claim- 
ed to have come to the rescue, took part in the conflict. 
At this, Jefferson Davis pretended to feel aggrieved and 
sent a challenge which Bissell accepted. But through the 
intervention of friends all further trouble was averted 
and as stated in the Washington Union of February twen- 
ty-eighth, 1850, the matter was "Most honorably adjusted 
to the gratification and entire satisfaction of their mutual 
friends. ' ' 

During his administration the building of another pen- 
itentiary was provided for and also the establishment of a 
Normal University. 

During this administration the following counties were 
formed : 



191 

Douglas February 13, 1857. Act of 1857, p. 71 

Ford '' 17,1859. '' 1859, 29 

Since which time no other counties have been formed 
and the creation of Ford County, as the last in the series, 
completed the rounding out of the county system in the 
state. 

Bissell died on March eighteenth, 1860, before the end 
of his term, and the unexpired term was filled by Lieuten- 
ant-Governor John Wood. 

During this period two great political giants appeared 
upon the scene and engrossed popular attention. In fact 
the political debates between Lincoln and Douglas at- 
tracted national interest. 

The population in 1860 was 1,711,951. 



192 



LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 brought 
Abraham Lincoln into prominence. He entered with all 
his force into the discussion of the repeal. He opposed 
it. In fact he led the opposition. His activity secured 
him the leadership. In 1856 the Republican party Avas 
organized. Lincoln was present at the birth of the new 
party. As one of the organizers, he stood by and helped 
to rock the infant of republicanism in the free soil cradle 
of a growing public sentiment. 

Douglas was a United States Senator and became a 
candidate for re-election in 1858. Lincoln was desig- 
nated by the new party as the opposing candidate. A 
challenge to enter into a public debate was sent to Doug- 
las and finally the terms were arranged for the memorable 
contest which extended from Freeport in the north to 
Jonesboro in the south. During the discussion Lincoln 
never went farther than to insist that slavery should be 
put "in course of ultimate extinction." As Love joy had 
at one time spoken of ' ' gradual emancipation ' ' so Lincoln 
dreamed of ''ultimate extinction." But the course of 
events forced Love joy to widen his sphere of agitation 
and the course of events dispelled the dream of Lincoln, 
when in its very midst he awakened to its realization. 

In the contest of 1858 Douglas won. In 1860 he was 



193 

named as the candidate of his party for the presidency. 
Lincoln was again designated as his opponent. In this 
contest Lincoln won. Douglas was beaten through a di- 
vision in his own party. The Civil War came on in which 
Lincoln became the great central figure of that four years' 
conflict, in which the irrepressible course of events brought 
about the "ultimate extinction" of slavery. For in order 
to sooner suppress the rebellion the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation was issued on the first day of January, 1863. 

At the commencement of the Civil War these two great 
figures that had all along been political opponents stood 
side by side for the constitution and the preservation of 
the Union. Unfortunately, Douglas died in the summer 
of 1861 and in his death the patriots lost one of their 
ablest defenders, for he believed in 

' ' The Union of Lakes, The Union of Lands, 
The Union of States none can sever. 

The Union of Hearts, The Union of Hands, 
And the Flag of our Union forever ! ' ' 

The war continued with varying successes till its close. 
Lincoln quietly directed its destiny. After his real work 
had been performed and the closing days of the conflict 
had been assured it seemed a strange decree of Fate that 
he should not live to see the final fruition of his patriotic 
prayers. Lee had surrendered. Johnston was still in 
the field but soon to be conquered. Before this last act 
closed the drama, the great central figure was removed 
from the scene of action by an assassin's bullet, leaving, 
however, 

' ' One of the few, the immortal names. 
That were not born to die, ' ' 



194 

while he who bore it in his lifetime now is sleeping in his 
coffined bed at Springfield, underneath a great mausoleum 
which every eye regards with reverence and to which there 
comes a never-ending stream of pilgrims bringing offer- 
ings to the tomb of Lincoln, 



195 



YATES 1861-1865— CIVIL WAR. 

On January fourteenth, 1861, Richard Yates was in- 
augurated as Governor. 

The most important act passed during the first session 
of the legislature was one for the protection of married 
women in their separate property. 

As the Civil War period was now on hand, public senti- 
ment and official life were busy with the treatment of na- 
tional questions rather than local ones. As some of the 
states were threatening secession, the Governor's message 
devoted much attention to this matter, insisting upon the 
indissolubility of the government. Virginia called for a 
peace conference at Washington and Illinois among other 
states responded by the appointment of commissioners. 
The efforts of this peace conference however failed and the 
Civil War came on. While the legislative sessions were 
constantly harassed with discussions on the all-important 
topic of the war, there was a practical unanimity of senti- 
ment throughout the state in favor of the prosecution of 
the war and the maintenance of the Union. Illinois gave 
Lincoln to the nation as its President and elected a patriot 
who became our War Governor. The state contributed 
to the military service during the war 259,092 soldiers. It 
also contributed Grant who became the leader of all the 
Union forces in the conflict and Logan, a native Illinoisan, 
who was looked upon as the greatest representative of the 

vol- 



196 

unteer soldiery. In the midst of all the excitement at- 
tendant upon the war situation, an attempt to amend our 
state constitution was made. A constitutional convention 
was held in the early part of 1862 but when the instrument 
which was prepared was submitted to the people it was 
rejected by an overwhelming vote. The succeeding legis- 
lature met under circumstances when the war feeling was 
at a still greater tension. While the people as a whole 
were undoubtedly loyal, there were those both in public 
and in private life who were ready to throw obstacles in 
the way of the war^s progress. Many of the members of 
this legislature were guilty of conduct which might be 
characterized, to put the matter mildly, as an approach to 
disloyalty. The President's Emancipation Proclamation 
gave umbrage to such members and they denounced the 
President and his course in their speeches; resolutions 
were framed denunciatory of nearly everything and every- 
body connected with the war, until the Governor finally, 
tiring of this session which was bringing nothing but 
odium upon the state, prorogued the legislature on June 
tenth, 1863. 



197 



OGLESBY 1865-1869. 

On January sixteenth, 1865, Eichard J. Oglesby was in- 
augurated as Governor. 

January thirty-first, 1865, a joint resolution of Con- 
gress, which had passed the Senate some time previously, 
passed the House, proposing the thirteenth amendment to 
the national constitution, providing that slavery should 
not exist in the United States. Being sanctioned by the 
President the next day, the news was at once sent to the 
various states of the country and the legislature of this 
state by its prompt action placed Illinois in a position of 
being the first state to ratify the amendment. And this 
act furnished the concluding chapter to the question of 
slavery in our state. 

January fifteenth, 1867, the fourteenth amendment to 
the national constitution was ratified by Illinois. This 
amendment conferred citizenship without regard to color. 

Another measure which received attention by this legis- 
lature was the location of an Agricultural or Industrial 
College. The place selected was Urbana. Congress had 
made donations of lands to the several states for this pur- 
pose, of which Illinois received nearly a half million acres. 

Futile attempts were made to remove the state capital 
but by act of February twenty-fifth, 1867, a new State 
House was provided for, the cost of which was to be lim- 
ited to $3,000,000, and the capital remained at Springfield. 



198 



PALMER 1869-1873. 

On January eleventh, 1869, John M. Palmer was inau- 
gurated as Governor. 

On March fifth, the fifteenth amendment to the na- 
tional constitution was ratified by the legislature. The 
legislature of 1867 had submitted to the electors of the 
state the question of calling a convention for the purpose 
of framing a new state constitution. This convention 
met December thirteenth, 1869. The most important 
change made in the fundamental law prohibits the matter 
of special legislation which theretofore had been the prin- 
cipal business which occupied legislative sessions. This 
constitution was ratified by the people July second, 1870. 
In this year the population had grown to 2,539,891. Dur- 
ing the year 1871, the great Chicago fire occurred, out of 
which there grew a disagreement between the state and 
federal authorities. The local authorities of Chicago and 
the business interests had called for assistance to aid them 
in the protection of their property. This aid was fur- 
nished by the federal troops which was resented by Gov- 
ernor Palmer on the score that the authorities of the state 
were amply able to furnish such protection. The con- 
troversy was carried on between the Governor and Presi- 
dent Grant, in which the Governor was indorsed by one 
branch of the legislature for his stand, while at the same 
time exonerating the military from any -svrong intent, the 
Senate taking no action, and the incident became closed 
except in so far as it furnished a precedent for the adher- 
ents of both opposing views. 



199 



CHICAGO AND THE CHICAGO FIRE. 

The birth of the great city of Chicago may be said to 
date back to the winter of 1674, when Marquette, on his 
return from his mission station at St. Ignace to visit the 
Kaskaskia Indians on the Illinois river, made a stop near 
the Chicago river and with his companions built a cabin 
where he wintered until the following spring. This was 
the first home of the white man in Illinois, from which also 
dates the beginning of Chicago. After the discovery, the 
site of Chicago, in a few years, became an Indian trading 
post. In 1804 Fort Dearborn^ was established by the 
United States near the mouth of the Chicago river on the 
south side. Here occurred an Indian massacre in the 
war of 1812. 

In 1823 Beck called Chicago "a village of Pike Coun- 
ty, ' ' with a population of sixty or seventy.^ 

' ' The original plat of Chicago covered less than 

half a square mile, ' ' on August fourth, 1830.^ 

' ' In 1832 it contained five small stores, and 250 inhab- 
itants. "^ 

In 1837 it was incorporated into a city by the legis- 
lature. 

a. See ante 106. 

b. Beck, Gazetteer of 111. and Mo. ,100. See ante 118. 

c. Moses, 111. Hist, and Stat., Vol. II, 940. 

d. Peck, Gazetteer of 111., 179. 



200 

The census of 1870 showed its population to have been 
298,977. 

Late on Sunday evening, the eighth of October, 1871, 
a stable was discovered to be on fire in a portion of the 
city about half a mile southwest of the main business por- 
tion. The fire was soon communicated to the neighboring 
buildings and a strong southwest wind rapidly blew the 
conflagration toward the very heart of the city. The 
work of fiery devastation continued from 8 :45 o ^clock that 
evening, when it started, through the night and into the 
next day until $200,000,000 worth of property had been 
destroyed and one hundred thousand people rendered 
homeless, while two hundred and fifty men, women and 
children lost their lives in the terrible holocaust. The 
world at once carae to the assistance of the stricken city 
in its dire distress and the legislature of the state reim- 
bursed the city for its expenditure on the canal to the 
amount of nearly $3,000,000. 

A most vivid description of this catastrophe was pub- 
lished in 1892 written by Reverend David Swing, a very 
celebrated Chicago minister. 



201 



OGLESBY AND BEVERIDGE 1873-1877. 

On January thirteenth, 1873, Richard J. Oglesby was 
inaugurated as Governor for his second term. Being 
elected to the United States Senate on January twenty- 
first he resigned his office on January twenty-third and 
John Lowrie Beveridge became Governor. The history 
of the state under this administration consisted mainly of 
sporadic attempts on the part of various religious, politi- 
cal and social reform elements to engraft their views upon 
the public. The liquor question, the regulation of rail- 
roads, the organization of granges and farmers' clubs and 
the effort to establish so-called reform parties in politics ; 
these all came in for their share of public attention. A 
general revision of the laws was made and some new ones 
of a necessary nature were added. A commission was pro- 
vided and placed in charge of Illinois interests at the 
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 and for this 
purpose ten thousand dollars was appropriated. The 
closing part of the administration was occupied with the 
political excitement attendant on the great political cam- 
paign of 1876. 



202 



CULLOM 1877-1881. 

On January eighth, 1877, Shelby M. Cullom was inau- 
gurated as Governor. In his inaugural he advised amend- 
ing the clumsy revenue laws of the state. Senator John 
A. Logan, whose term was to expire on the fourth of 
March in the first year of this administration, became in- 
volved in a contest for re-election. On account of the 
independent movements which had been fashionable under 
the preceding administration, enough independent mem- 
bers had been elected to the legislature to hold the balance 
of power so that as a result neither of the prominent can- 
didates of the two leading political parties was successful. 
The long contest resulted in the election of Judge David 
Davis on the fortieth ballot as Logan's successor. 

A great railroad strike occurred in July, 1877; while 
the head center was at Pittsburg yet its various branches 
extended to other states. In Illinois, Chicago and the 
larger railroad and manufacturing and mining centers be- 
came involved in the strike. As disturbances took place 
at some of these points, troops were called for to preserve 
order and the military force of the state was ordered out. 
In the course of a week order was again restored and busi- 
ness began to enter upon its usual channels. 

During the last year of this administration the popula- 
tion had grown to 3,077,871 as shown by the census of 
1880. 



203 



CULLOM AND HAMILTON 1881-1885. 

At the election of 1880 CuUom was re-elected and on 
January tenth, 1881, he was re-inaugurated as Governor. 
His message was largely devoted to the matter of the ces- 
sion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal to the United 
States. The legislature failing to act however on this 
subject and also having failed to reapportion the state into 
congressional and legislative districts, he reconvened it in 
special session in March, 1882, to carry out these purposes. 
At this session the state was reapportioned and an act was 
passed with reference to the cession of the canal by which 
provision was made to submit the matter to a vote of the 
people in November of that year which was ratified. The 
Governor 's message to the legislature at the special session 
on the subject of the canal was characterized by such a 
business-like directness that it deserved not alone the at- 
tention of the legislature to which it was addressed, but 
deserves the attention of the entire nation for years to 
come until a deep water-way shall have been furnished 
through the center of our country. On the general sub- 
ject of transportation the Governor said: "I believe that 
the most important work is the improvement of our rivers, 
lakes and canals, and the construction of such new 
canals as will unite the waters, and whenever it can reason- 
ably be done, shorten distances for the transportation 
of freights. The government in the past has contributed 



204 

many millions of dollars and millions of acres of the public 
domain in aid of the construction of railroads across the 
continent, and in different portions of the undeveloped 
territory of the United States. It should now direct its 
expenditures to utilizing the waters of the country in the 
interest of cheap transportation. ' '^ 

On January sixteenth, 1883, Cullom was elected to the 
United States Senate. Lieutenant Governor John Marshall 
Hamilton succeeded to the office of Governor on Cullom 's 
resignation on February seventh. 

The legislature of 1883 passed the Harper high license 
law which provides for the payment of not less than $500 
per annum for the keeping of dram shops and not less than 
$150 for the sale of malt liquors only. 

a. Governor's Message to Special Session Thirty-second 
General Assembly, p. 4. 



205 



OGLESBY 1885-1889. 

On January thirteenth, 1885, Richard J. Oglesby was 
sworn in for the third time as Governor. The most ex- 
citing political event of this period was the election of a 
United States Senator as the successor of Senator Logan, 
who was a candidate for re-election. On account of the 
closeness of the vote between the parties in the legislature 
much time was taken up until the death of one of the mem- 
bers in whose place a successor of the opposite political 
faith was chosen, Logan had all along lacked one vote 
of the requisite number to secure an election and through 
this change he secured sufficient strength to be again 
elected. 

A legislative enactment secured the establishment of a 
Soldiers' and Sailors' Home which was located at Quincy. 

An event of great consequence occurred on the night 
of May fourth, 1886. A meeting was held in the Hay 
Market Square in Chicago at which the eight-hour day was 
under consideration. On the approach of the police for 
the purpose of dispersing the crowd, a bomb was thrown 
from the crowd and through the explosion seven policemen 
were killed and many were wounded. Mathias Degan was 
one of the policemen killed and for this an indictment was 
found against eight men who were tried and found guilty 
and sentenced to be hanged with the exception of one who 

se- 



206 

cured a sentence of fifteen years imprisonment. The 
matter was appealed but affirmed by the Supreme Court in 
the fall of 1887. One of the defendants committed suicide, 
while the sentences of two others were commuted by the 
Governor to life imprisonment and four were hanged on 
November eleventh, 1887. 



207 



FIFER 1889-1893. 

On January fourteenth, 1889, Joseph Wilson Fifer was 
inaugurated as Governor. 

On November twenty-fifth, 1889, the Illinois State His- 
torical Library was organized. 

The drainage legislation which took place during this 
administration was a most vital move affecting the com- 
mercial interests of the state and resulted in the creation 
of the Sanitary District of Chicago and the construction of 
the Drainage Canal. 

After Congress had decided to celebrate the four hun- 
dredth anniversary of the discovery of this continent by 
Columbus and Chicago had been selected as the site for the 
celebration, the Governor was requested by the Chicago 
authorities to convene a special session of the legislature 
for the purpose of taking steps with a view to aiding this 
undertaking. The session was held in the summer of 1890 
and granted such authority to the World 's Columbian Ex- 
position as was deemed necessary to enable it to carry out 
the purposes intended by the movement set on foot for the 
celebration; among other things submitting a constitu- 
tional amendment to the people enabling Chicago on a vote 
of its electors to issue $5,000,000 in bonds whereof the pro- 
ceeds might be devoted to Exposition purposes. 

The population of the state in 1890 was 3,826,351. 



208 



ALTGELD 1893-1897. 

In January, 1893, John P. Altgeld was inaugurated as 
Governor. He was the first foreign-born Governor of the 
state. He was born in Germany in 1848. He came to 
this country when a mere boy and was reared on a farm in 
Ohio. At the age of sixteen he went into the Union army 
and after the war taught school until he adopted the law 
as a profession. He practiced in Missouri till 1875, when 
he moved to Chicago and identified himself thereafter with 
Illinois affairs. 

Among the acts of this administration which attracted 
the most attention and provoked the greatest discussion 
was the pardoning of the three men who were in prison for 
the affair which occurred on the Hay Market in May, 1886. 
Four of those who had been charged with complicity in 
that occurrence had been hanged in 1887, one had commit- 
ted suicide, two had their sentences commuted from the 
death sentence to life imprisonment by Governor Oglesby 
and one had received an original sentence of fifteen years. 
These last three were serving time when on June twenty- 
sixth, 1893, Governor Altgeld granted them an absolute 
pardon. Petitions signed by many thousands of citizens 
of all classes and occupations had been sent to the Gov- 
ernor praying for executive clemency. In granting the 
pardon he gives his reasons for so doing and enters into an 
exhaustive review of the history of the whole matter as 
well as the legal phases involved. During this adminis- 
tration the World's Columbian Exposition took place on 
Illinois soil. 



209 



THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 

The movement for the celebration of the four hun- 
dredth anniversary of the discovery of the continent by 
Columbus had its origin in Illinois. The initial step was 
taken several years prior to the time when the anniversary 
would occur and the movement was kept alive from time to 
time by various Chicago clubs, which interested themselves 
until in 1889 the city council of Chicago authorized the 
appointment of a committee of prominent citizens whose 
business it was to keep alive the agitation and see to it 
that if a "World's Fair would be held, Chicago should 
secure the location of the same. A corporation, capital- 
ized at $5,000,000, was organized. Senator Cullom brought 
the matter before Congress and on the twenty-fifth of 
April, 1890, the national enactment was consummated 
w^hich set on foot definitely the great exposition which 
afterward took place on our soil. In the contest for the 
location, four cities were competitors, namely, New York, 
Washington, St. Louis and Chicago. It took eight ballots 
in the lower house of Congress to determine the matter. 
In the summer of that year a special session of the Illinois 
legislature, through its legal enactment, helped to round 
out the legal machinery through which the exposition was 
to be set in operation. The directors of the corporation 
selected a part of the Lake Front and Jackson Park for the 
site of the great Fair. The Fair was opened on May first, 
1893, and was continued until the end of October. 



210 



TANNER 1897-1901— CUBAN WAR. 

In January, 1897, John R. Tanner was inaugurated as 
Governor. 

The destruction of the Maine, while on a friendly visit 
in the harbor of Havana, with the accompanying loss of 
American seamen, furnished the cause for the declaration 
of war with Spain. As soon as the news of the tragedy 
flashed across the wires, the nation was aroused. An ex- 
tra session of the Illinois legislature took place and Gov- 
ernor Tanner on February seventeenth, 1898, asked this 
body to authorize him to offer the support of the state in 
this crisis, which authority was at once given, thereby 
placing Illinois first on the list in the sisterhood of states 
in the offer of extending help. Under the President's call 
this state was to provide seven regiments of infantry and 
one of cavalry. They rendezvoused at Camp Tanner at 
Springfield. In addition, one battery of light artillery 
was also accepted. Under the President's second call two 
more regiments of infantry were furnished. The eighth 
regiment was a colored regiment.^ 

From the Adjutant-General's report it appears that 
the Illinois regiments saw service as follows: 

The first and second infantry (Chicago) regiments in 
Cuba; 

The third infantry in Porto Rico; 

a. Adj. -Gen. Report of 1902, Vol. 9. 



211 

The fourth infantry in Cuba ; 

The fifth infantry at Chickamauga, Newport News and 
Lexington ; 

Part of the sixth infantry in Cuba and part in Porto 
Rico; 

The seventh infantry (Chicago) at Camp Alger and 
Camp George G. Meade ; 

The eighth infantry (colored) in Cuba; 

The ninth infantry in Cuba; 

The first cavalry at Camp Thomas and Fort Sheridan; 

Battery A (light artillery) in Porto Rico. 

On May twenty-third, 1900, the Illinois State Histori- 
cal Society was incorporated with the following object: 
*'To excite and stimulate a general interest in the history 
of Illinois ; to encourage historical research and investiga- 
tion and secure its promulgation; to collect and preserve 
all forms of historical data in any way connected with 
Illinois and its people. ' '^ 

The population in 1900 was 4,821,550. 

a. Articles of incorporation. 

Trans. 111. State Hist. Soc, 1900, p. 1. 



212 



YATES 1901-1905. 

In January, 1901, Richard Yates was inaugurated as 
Governor. He was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, on De- 
cember twelfth, 1860, and was the first native-born Gov- 
ernor of our state. He was educated for the legal pro- 
fession and after graduating from the Michigan Univer- 
sity he entered upon the practice of his profession. 

The first legislative session under his administration 
reapportioned the state into twenty-five congressional 
and fifty-one senatorial districts. Among the appropria- 
tions provided for was one of $250,000 for the purpose of 
erecting a building and presenting Illinois exhibits at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, through which the great- 
ness of Illinois should be presented to the world. And 
at the Exposition in 1904, our state made a splendid 
showing over which every Illinoisan felt a just pride. 

In line with a patriotic and educational tendency, the 
second legislative session passed an act, which was ap- 
proved by the Governor on May sixteenth, 1903, making 
the Illinois State Historical Society a department of the 
Illinois State Historical Library. Incidental expenses 
are to be paid for interviewing old settlers and examining 
county, church, school and like records under the direc- 
tion of the Historical Library Board. And thus, a means 
was provided by which our historic progress may be pre- 
served and transmitted to the generations yet to come. 



213 



DENEEN 1905—. 

On January ninth, 1905, Charles S. Deneen was inau- 
gurated as Governor. 

He was born May fourth, 1863, at Edwardsville in 
Madison County and hence is the second native-born Gov- 
ernor of our state. He received his education in the 
public schools of Lebanon and at McKendree College and 
the Union College of Law (now Northwestern Law 
School). He moved to Chicago where he pursued his 
profession and became connected with some of the lead- 
ing law firms of that city. On May tenth, 1891, he was 
married to Miss Bina Day Maloney. In the fall of 1892 
he was elected a member of the Illinois legislature; in 
1895 Attorney for Sanitary Board; was nominated and 
elected in 1896 as State's Attorney for Cook County and 
re-elected in 1900. Was a delegate to the National Re- 
publican Convention in Philadelphia in 1900. Was nom- 
inated for Governor and elected on November eighth, 
1904. 

His father, Samuel H. Deneen, was professor of Latin 
and ancient and medieval history in McKendree College 
and in the Civil War was adjutant of the 117th Illinois 
Volunteers and under President Harrison's administration 
was United States Consul at Belleville, Ontario. 

His grandfather, William L. Deneen, was County Sur- 
veyor of St. Clair County as early as 1849. 



214 



NEWSPAPERS. 

This book has not been dedicated to any individual 
or class in particular, for fear that its shortcomings, what- 
ever they may be, might not be a welcome offering. If the 
author could be entirely shorn of this fear, he knows of 
no guild to whom he would rather dedicate the labor of 
his love than to the newspaper fraternity of Illinois. The 
newspaper in its potentiality has been a tremendous force 
in the evolution of human civilization. While the great 
development of human liberty has received its greatest 
impetus from the march of events right here on Illinois 
soil and while our history is an unbroken chain of cir- 
cumstances leading to the consummation of the political 
equality of man, the newspapers of the state have been 
dominant factors in moulding and shaping the course of 
these circumstances, which have produced such beneficent 
results. 

Mathew Duncan began to publish the "Illinois Her- 
ald'* on September sixth, 1814, at Kaskaskia. It was the 
first newspaper in our state.^ 

There are now over seventeen hundred newspapers 
and periodicals being issued in Illinois and these, with 
their powerful influence, exert an incalculable effect 
on the public and private life of Illinois. More than 
five million Illinoisans trust that this influence will 

a. E. A. Snively, Trans, ni. State Hist. Soc. 1904, p. 205. 



215 



continue to be exerted in line with our civic motto of 
"State Sovereignty and National Union," so that while 
the greatness of Illinois shall be the pride of its citi- 
zens, this citizenship will exult in the satisfaction of be- 
longing to a national and indivisible Union of States. 



216 



conti:nts. 



Title Leaf 

Author's Preface 3 

Chain of Title 6 

Chain of Title 9 

Indians H 

Spain 12 

Map 13 

England 1^ 

Map 1"^ 

Spanish, English and French 

Discoveries 19 

Map 22 

Spain 23 

Map 26 

France 27 

Map 30 

England 31 

Map 34 

France 35 

Map 40 

The Illinois Indians 41 

First Whites and First Sta- 
tion in Illinois 47 

Discovery of coal in Illinois. 53 

First Fort in Illinois 57 

Map 60 

Further French Occupation.. 61 

Map "^2 

England 73 

Map 76 

Fort Chartres and the Con- 
quest of the N. W 77 

Map S2 

Virginia and the County of 

Illinois 83 

Map 88 

United States— N. W. Terri- 
tory S9 

Map 94 

Map 97 

Map 99 

Map 102 

The War of 1812 106 

The State of Illinois 109 

Bond, 1818-1822 113 



Map 117 

The First Legal Execution. . .120 

Coles, 1822-1826 122 

Edwards, 1826-1830 126 

The Educational System 130 

Reynolds and Ewing, 1830- 

1834 133 

The Black Hawk War 135 

Duncan, 1834-1838 140 

Lovejoy's Assassination 146 

Slavery in Illinois 153 

An Act Respecting Free Ne- 
groes, etc 158 

Carlin, 1838-1842 170 

The Mormons 175 

Ford, 1842-1846 177 

Mexican War 183 

General James Shields 185 

French, 1846-1849-1853 187 

The Illinois Central Railroad. 188 

Matteson, 1853-1857 189 

Bissell and Wood, 1857-1861. .190 

Lincoln and Douglas 192 

Yates, 1861-1865 

Civil War 195 

Oglesby, 1865-1869 197 

Palmer, 1869-1873 198 

Chicago and the Chicago Fire. 199 
Oglesby and Beveridge, 1873- 

1877 201 

Cullom, 1877-1881 202 

Cullom and Hamilton, 1881- 

1885 203 

Oglesby, 1885-1889 205 

Fifer, 1889-1893 207 

Altgeld, 1893-1897 208 

The World's Columbian Ex- 
position 209 

Tanner, 1897-1901 

Cuban War 210 

Yates, 1901-1905 212 

Deneen, 1905- 213 

Newspapers 214 

Contents 216 

Index 217 



217 



INDEX. 



Ackerman, 145. 

Aco, 50. 

Actual cultivation, 65. 

Actual possession, 24. 

Actual transfer, 73. 

Admission, 110. 

Advent of white men, 37. 

Affleck, 120. 

Agricultural college, 197. 

Alamo, 184. 

Albion, 143. 

Alger, 211. 

Allouez, 36, 44, 49. 

Altgeld, 208. 

Alton, 42, 84, 126, 133, 140, 143, 

147. 
Amending of constitution, 123, 

196, 207. 
Amendments, 157, 197, 198. 
American Bottom, 42, 84, 104, 111, 

144, 145. 
Ancient village of the Illinois, 

46. 

Population of, 48, 49. 
Arkansas country, 37, 44. 
Armstrong, 139. 
Army of Clark, 79. 
Assassination of LaSalle, 62. 
Assassination of Lovejoy, 145, 

146, 156. 
Assassination of Pontiac, 46, 73. 
Atkinson, 129, 137, 138. 
Aubuchon, 69. 
Author's preface, 3. 
Bad Axe, 138. 
Bahamas, 12. 
Ball, 74. 
Bancroft, 31. 
Bank, 113, 123, 126, 133, 140, 180, 

187. 
Baptism of Aco, 50. 
Baptisms, record of, 49. 
Baptist, 95, 128. 
Bateman, 132. 
Bayliss, 132. 



Bay, Chegoimegon, 35. 

Bay, Galveston, 62. 

Bay, Massachusetts, 30. 

Bay, Matagorda, 62. 

Beard, 121. 

Beardstown, 136, 137, 138. 

Beck, 55, 108, 113, 116, 119, 199. 

Becker, 51. 

Beckwith, 41, 42, 43. 

Belgium, 184. 

Belle Fontaine, 84, 96. 

Belleville, 103. 120, 121, 143. 

Bennett, 120, 121. 

Beveridge, 201. 

Bienville, 66, 67. 

Big Muddy river, 142. 

Bineteau, 50. 

Bingo, 153. 

Birth of new party, 189. 

Bissell, 190, 191. 

Black Code, 155. 

Black Hawk, 128, 135, 136, 137, 

138, 139. 
Black Hawk War, 108, 128, 134, 

135. 
Black Laws, 119, 122, 126, 155, 

157, 158-169. 
Blacks, 64. 
Blacksmith, 58, 145. 
Blind, 132. 

Bloomington, 142, 143. 
Blue Licks, 85. 
Bluffs, 42, 84, 142, 144. 
Boisbriant, 65, 66, 67, 77. 
Bond, 84, 111, 113, 123, 130, 185. 
Bonds, sale of, 170. 
Book A, 95. 
Bottom, American, 42, 84, 104, 

111, 144, 145. 
Boul, 145. 
Boundaries, 110. 
Boundary dispute, 110, 181. 
Bounties, 108. 
Bourbonnais, 69. 
Brazil tobacco, 45. 



218 



Breese, 37, 41, 42, 43, 52, 53. 62. 

Bribe, 45. 

British, 68. 108. 

Brown, 41, 108, 171, 182. 

Brownsville, 114. 

Brooks, 132. 

Buena Vista, 186, 190, 

Buffalo's wool, 67. 

Bureau of labor statistics, 56. 

Cabin, first, 49. 

Cabot, 16. 

Cabot's discovery, 17. 

Cahokia, 42, 43, 46, 52, 62, 68, 69, 

73, 74, 76, 79, 84, 95. 
Cahokia creek, 42. 
Cahokia mound, 42. 
Cahokia village, 42. 
Cahokias, 40, 41, 42, 52. 
Cairo, 112, 142. 
California. 186. 
Camp Alger. 211. 
Campbell, 108. 
Camp Russell, 108. 
Canada, 19, 27, 35, 36, 51, 61, 69, 

91, 103, 109. 
Canada, Intendant of, 35, 36. 
Canal, Illinois & Michigan, 123, 

124, 127, 133, 140, 141, 172, 180, 

187, 188, 200, ?03. 
Canal, Chicago Sanitary, 123. 
Canal commissioners, 141. 
Canal, Drainage^ 207. 
Canal, Panama, 173. 
Canton, 143. 
Cape Fear, 31. 
Capital, 113, 140, 174, 197. 
Carbondale, 132. 
Carlin, 170, 176. 
Carlyle, 143. 
Carolina, English, 63. 
Carolina, Fort, 24. 
Carthage, 143, 178, 179. 
Cartier, 26, 27, 35. 
Cartier to Frontenac, 41, 44, 49. 
Cartwright, 96. 
Cascaschia, 48. 
Casey, 133. 
Caton, 46. 
Cattle, 67. 



Cemetery, 51. 

Centennial, 201. 

Central railroad, 143, 172, 187, 

188. 
Cerro Gordo, 186. 

Chain of title, 6, 7, 9, 10. 

Chain of Lakes, 23, 35, 77. 

Champlain, 35. 

Charleston, 132, HZ, 

Charlevoix, 41, 45, 46, 54, 66, 67. 

Charboniere, 54. 

Chegoimegon, 35, 

Chester, 42, 50, 83, 84, 111. 

Chicago, 52, 106, 116, 141, 172, 199, 
202, 207, 208, 209, 213. 

Chicago river, 49. 106, 199. 

Chicago Historical Society, 83, 
182. 

Chicago creek, 116. 

Chicago sanitary canal, 123. 

Chicago drainage district, 172. 

Chicago fire, 198, 199, 200. 

Chickamauga, 211. 

Chickasaws, 267, 

Chief Justice Marshall, 10, 

Chief Pottawatomie, 46. 

China, 36, 

China, northwest passage to, 37. 

Chouteau, 74, 112. 

Church of Kaskaskia, 49, 

Civil War, 193, 195. 

Claim, English, map of, 17, 30, 72. 

Claim, French, 36. 
Map of, 26, 34, 

Clark, 74, 78, 79, 83, 84, 90, 107. 

Clark, Fort, 107, 108, 

Clay, 103. 

Clayton, 143. 

Cleveland, 175. 

Coal, 53, 54. 55, 56, 144. 

Code Noir (black), 155. 

Coles, 122, 155. 

College, agricultural and indus- 
trial, 197. 

College, Illinois, 128. 

College, McKendree, 128, 213 

College, Shurtleff. 128. 

Collet. 70. 

Columbus, 12, 143, 207, 209. 



219 



Columbus' discovery, 13. 
Columbian Exposition, 207, 208, 

209. 
Commandant, 66, 67, 73. 
Commandant, first, 65, 84. 
Commandant, Spanish, 84. 
Commandants, French, 50, 67, 68, 

70, 73. 
Common, 66. 
Common fields, 66. 
Commutation of sentence, 206. 
Company, London, 30, 31. 
Company, Plymouth, 30, 31. 
Company, Royal India, 64, 65, 66. 

67, 153. 
Company of the west, 64, 65, 153, 
Commissioners to move dead, 51. 
Concurrent jurisdiction, 110, 111, 

119. 
Confederacy of Illinois, 41, 

Map of, 40. 

Population of, 42. 
Conference, peace, 36, 195. 
Confirmation to French and Can- 
adian inhabitants, 89, 90, 154. 
Confirmation to Virginia citizens, 

90. 
Congress, Indian, 36, 
Connecticut, 89. 
Connecticut colony, 30. 
Conquest of the Northwest, 74, 

76, 77, 79, 83. 

Map of, 76. 
Conspiracy of Pontiac, 74. 
Constituent assembly, 146. 
Constitutional convention, 196, 

198. 
Constitutions, 110, 155, 156, 157, 

187. 

Amending of, 123, 196, 207. 
Constructively, 36. 
Constructive possession, 24, 31. 
Contents, 216. 

Controversy, boundary, 110, 181. 
Cook, 51, 155. 
Copper, 54, 55. 
Counterfeiting, 179. 
Counties — 

Adams, 125. 



Alexander, 113. 
Bond, 104. 
Boone, 145. 
Brown, 173. 
Bureau, 145. 
Calhoun, 125. 
Carroll, 173. 
Cass, 145. 
Champaign, 134. 
Christian, 173. 
Clark, 113. 
Clay, 124. 
Clinton, 41, 124. 
Coles, 134. 
Cook, 134, 213. 
Crawford, 104. 
Cumberland, 181. 

DeKalb, 145. 

DeWitt, 173. 

Douglas, 191. 

DuPage, 173. 

Edgar, 124. 

Edwards, 104, 114, 126. 

Effingham, 134. 

Payette, 115. 

Ford, 191. 

Franklin, 105. 

Fulton, 124. 

Gallatin, 104. 

Greene, 115. 

Grundy, 174. 

Hamilton, 92, 115. 

Hancock, 125, 176, 177, 1- 

Hardin, 174. 

Henderson, 174. 

Henry, 124, 12^;. 

Iroquois, 134. 

Jackson, 104. 

Jasper, 134. 

Jefferson, 113. 

Jersey, 173. 

Jo Daviess, 128. 

Johnson, 104. 

Kane, 14& 

Kankakee, 187. 

Kendall, 174. 

Knox, 125. 

Lake, 173. 

LaSalle, 37, 54. 134, 141. 



220 



Lawrence, 115. 

Lee, 173. 

Livingston, 145. 

Logan, 173. 

McDonough, 125. 

McHenry, 145. 

McLean, 115, 134. 

Macon, 128. 

Macoupin, 128. 

Madison, 104, 213. 

Marion, 124. 

Marshall, 173. 

Mason, 174. 

Massac, 181. 

Menard, 115, 173. 

Mercer, 125. 

Monroe, 65, 84, 96, 104. 

Montgomery, 115. 

Morgan, 124. 

Moultrie, 181. 

Ogle, 145. 

Peoria, 125. 

Perry, 128. 

Piatt, 174. 

Pike, 115, 116, 117, 199. 

Pope, 104. 

Pulaski, 181. 

Putnam, 125. 

Randolph, 69, 77, 96, 97, 99, 

105. 
Richland, 174. 
Rock Island, 134. 
St. Clair, 69, 85, 94, 95, 96 

99. 102, 105. 120. 121, 142, 
Saline, 187. 
Sangamon. 115. 
Schuyler, 125. 
Scott, 173. 
Shelby, 128. 
Stark, 174. 
Stephenson, 145. 
Tazewell, 57, 128. 
Union, 105. 
Vermilion, 125. 
Wabash, 125. 
Warren, 125. 
Washington, 92, 105. 
Wayne, 113. 
White, 104. 



Whiteside, 145. 

Will, 145. 

Williamson, 172. 

Winnebago, 145. 

Woodford, 174. 
Country, Arkansas, 37, 44. 
Country, Illinois, 47, 53, 61, 62, 63, 

66, 67, 68, 70, 74, 78, 79, 82, 83, 

84, 95, 153. 
Country, Miamis, 61. 
Country, Rock river, 108, 136, 137, 

142. 
Coureurs de Bojs, 55. 
Court, 73, 90. 
Courts, primitive, 84. 
Cove Spring, 96. 
Craig, 107. 

Creve Coeur, 57, 61. 
Cross of cedar, 36. 
Crows, 95. 
Crozat, 63, 64, 65. 
Cuba, 210, 211. 
Cuban War, 210. 
Cullom, 202, 203, 204, 209. 
Cultivation, actual, 65. 
Cunning thieves, 46. 
Currency, depreciation of, 114. 
Customs of Paris, 64. 
102, Dablon, 35, 36, 44. 
Dane county, 173. 
Danville, 143. 
D'Artaguette, 67. 
97, Das Deutsche Element, 112. 
213. Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution, 57, 74. 
Dauphin, Lake, 48. 
Davidson & Stuve, 171. 
Davis, 190, 202. 
Deaf and Dumb, 132, 
Dearborn, Fort, 106, 199. 
Death of Marquette, 49. 
Debate, Lincoln and Douglas, 192, 

193, 194. 
DeBertel, 68. 
Decatur, 142, 143. 
DeChastes, 26, 27. 
Declaration of Independence, 146. 
Degan, 205. 
DeGourges, 24. 



221 



DeKalb, 132. 
DeLaBuissoniere, 67. 
DeLaVega, 23. 
DeLeon, 22, 23, 24. 
DeMonts, 26, 27, 35. 
Deneen, 213. 
Dental Brief, 41. 
Depreciation of currency, 114. 
Description of Louisiana, 48, 54, 

57. 
Description of Fort Chartres, 78, 
DesLiettes, 67. 
DesMoines river, 44. 
DesPlaines river, 49. 
DeSoto, 22, 24. 
DesUrsins, 65, 66. 
Discoveries, Spanish, English 

and French, 19. 
Discovery by Cabot, 17. 
Discovery by Columbus, 13. 
Discovery of the Great West, 35, 

49, 62. 
District, intermediate, 30, 31. 
Division of papers, 69. 
Dixon, 137, 138, 139. 
Doniphan, 175. 
Doty, 182. 

Douglas, 176, 189, 191, 192, 193. 
Drainage Canal, 207. 
Drake, 24. 
Dram shops, 204. 
Duel, sham, 120. 
Duncan, 124, 131, 136, 140, 143, 

170, 214. 
DuQuoin, 43. 

Early French settlers, 66. 
Earthquakes, 103. 
Eastern Indians, 43. 
Eastern Normal, 132. 
Eastern State, 91. 
East St. Louis, 144. 
Education, 92, 128, 130, 131, 132. 
Educational Institution, 132. 
Edwards, 83, 103, 104, 107, 108, 

123, 128, 129, 132, 136, 156. 
Edwardsville, 114, 143, 213. 
Election, first. 111. 
Emancipation, gradual, 148, 192. 



Emancipation Proclamation, 193, 
196. 

Employees in mines, 56. 
Enabling act, 181. 
Encroachments of Mississippi 

river, 48, 78. 
England, 16, 31, 68, 73, 78, 106, 

184. 
English, 35, 73, 74, 78, 79, 83. 
English Carolina, 63. 
English claim, map of, 17, 30, 72. 
English occupation, 73. 
English, Spanish and French dis- 
coveries, 19. 
Enumeration of Illinois Indians, 

43. 
Establishment of the Faith, 42, 

45, 49, 57. 
Etter, 132. 
Ewing, 133. 

Execution, first legal, 119, 120. 
Expediency, 181. 
Extermination of Illinois tribes, 

43, 46, 73. 
Extinction, ultimate, 192. 
Factories, 64. 
Fairfield, 143. 
Faith, establishment of the, 42, 

45, 49, 57. 
Ferdinand and Isabella, 12. 
Ferland, 51, 52. 
Fields, common, 65. 
Pifer, 207. 
Fike, 120. 

First American school master, 96. 
First cabin, 49. 
First commandant, 65, 84. 
First county, 95. 
First election. 111 
First foreign-born Governor, 208. 
First fort, 57. 

First Governor, 111, 113, 130, 185. 
First home, 199. 
First legal execution, 119, 120. 
First Lieutenant-Governor, 111. 
First native born Governor, 212. 
First railroad, 144. 
First state election, 111. 
First station, 47. 



222 



First whites, 47. 

Florida, 23, 24, 27, 184. 

Ford, 105, 123, 171, 177, 178, 180. 

Forest rangers, 55. 

Forge, 58. 

Fort Carolina, 24. 

Fort Chartres, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73, 

74, 76, 77, 78. 
Fort Clark, 107, 108. 
Fort Dearborn, 106, 199. 
Fortified post, 58. 
Fort Massac, 70, 76, 95. 
Fort Recovery, 99, 103. 
Fortress Monroe, 139. 
Fort St. Louis, 62. 
Fort Sheridan, 211. 
Fowls, 67. 

Fox Indians, 108, 129, 135. 
Fox river, 37, 55, 135. 
France, 27, 31, 35, 63, 66, 67, 68, 

73, 184. 
France, New, 27, 35, 47, 50, 53, 61, 

63, 64, 67. 

Map of, 60. 
Freeman, 132. 
Freeport, 192. 
Free schools, 124, 131. 
French, 187. 

French-Canadian government, 62. 
French-Canadian inhabitants, 89, 

90, 154. 
French claim, 36. 

Map of, 26, 34. 
French commandants, 50, 67, 68, 

70, 73. 
French, English and Spanish dis- 
coveries, 19. 
French-Indian War, 68, 92. 
French possessions, 68. 
French settlements, 79. 
French settlers, 66. 
French slaves, 156. 
French traders, 55. 
Friars, 53. 

Frontenac, Cartier to, 41, 44, 49. 
Fuel, 66. 
Fugitives, 91. 
Fugitive slave law, 156. 
Fund commissioners, 141. 



Further French occupation, 61. 

Fur traders. 35. 

Gage, 73. 

Gaines, 136. 137. 

Galena, 129, 142. 

Galveston Bay, 62. 

Garrison, 84. 

Gayarre, 65, 70. 

Gazetteer, Beck, 55, 108, 113, 116, 

119, 199. 
Gazetteer, Peck, 108, 128, 141, 171, 

199. 
Gentiles, 175, 176, 179. 
German immigration, 112. 
Germany, 208. 
Gibault, 79. 
Gilman, 156. 
Godfather, 115. 
Gomo's Town, 108. 
Good heels, 45. 

Gradual emancipation, 148, 192. 
Grand Marais, 144. 
Grant, 195, 198. 
Grant, Renault, 66. 
Grants, Indian, 65. 
Gratiot, 79. 
Gravier, 49, 50, 52. 
Great Lakes, 23, 35, 77. 
Great Marsh, 144. 
Great Miami river, 91. 
Great river, 35, 37, 44. 
Great Wabash river, 142. 
Great West, 180. 
Great West, discovery of, 35, 49, 

62. 
Great western mail route, 142, 

144. 
Green Bay, 37, 49. 
Greyhounds, 45. 
Griffin, 53. 
Guanajuata, 183. 
Guinea, 64. 

Gulf, 61, 62, 63, 124, 173. 
Gun, 46. 
Habits and habitat of Indians, 

44. 
Halifax, 31. 
Hamilton, 203, 204. 
Hardy, 90. 



223 



Harper, 204. 

Harris, 153. 

Harrison, 43, 96, 106, 135, 213. 

Havana, 210. 

Hay, 121. 

Hay Market, 205, 208. 

Heald, 106, 107. 

Heels, good, 45. 

Hennepin, 48, 53, 54, 56, 57, 138. 

Henry IV, 27. 

Henry, Patrick, 79, 83. 

Henry VII, 16. 

Herald, Illinois, 214. 

Hidalgo, 183. 

Higher education, 128. 

Highlanders, 73. 

High license, 204. 

Hillsboro, 143. 

Historical library, 207, 212. 

Historical Society, Chicago, 83, 

182. 
Historical Society, Illinois State, 

70, 211, 212. 
Historical Society, Missouri, 70. 
Hog-hide register, 69. 
Hopkins, 107. 
Horned cattle, 67. 
Horsepower, 145. 
Huguenot colony, 24. 
Hutchins' topographical descrip- 
tion, 43, 54. 
Iberville, 73. 
Idle, 45. 
Illinese, 40, 45. 
mini, 11, 41, 42, 52. 
Illinois. 109, 110, 111, 112. 
Illinois, ancient village of the, 

46. 
Illinois and Indiana Indians, 41, 

42, 43. 
Illinois and Louisiana under 

French rule, 70. 
Illinois & Michigan canal, 123, 

124, 127, 133, 140, 141, 172, 180, 

187, 188, 200, 203. 
Illinois Central railroad, 143, 172, 

187, 188. 
Illinois college, 128. 
Illinois confederacy, 41. 



Map of, 40. 

Population of, 42. 
Illinois country, 47, 53, 61, 62, 63, 

66, 67, 68, 70, 74, 78, 79, 82, 83, 

84, 95, 153. 
Illinois, county of, 82, 83. 
Illinois Indians, 11, 37, 41, 44, 47, 

48, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 73. 

Enumeration of, 43. 

Extinction of, 43, 46, 73. 
Illinois Herald, 214. 
Illinois, Lake, 49. 
Illinois river, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 

48, 49, 52, 54, 55, 95, 107, 108, 

116, 133, 135, 142, 172, 199. 
Illinois Territory, 102, 103. 

Map of, 102. 
Illinois University, 130. 
Immaculate Conception, mission 

of, 49, 50. 
Independence, 175. * 

Indiana, 83, 110, 116, 143. 
Indiana regiment, 190. 
Indiana Territory, 43, 96, 99, 105. 

Map of, 99. 
Indian congress, 36. 
Indian grants, 65. 
Indian massacre, 199. 
Indian migration to southern Illi- 
nois, 50. 
Indian, Peoria, 74. 
Indian right, 10. 
Indians, 11, 69, 84, 106, 107, 108, 

126, 128, 129, 135, 137, 138. 
Indians, Arkansas, 37. 
Indians, eastern, 43. 
Indians, habits and habitat of, 44. 
Indians, Peoria, 40, 41, 43, 61. 
Indians, Sac and Fox, 108, 135. 
Indian Territory, 44. 
Indian tribes of the west, 31, 35, 

36. 
Industrial college, 197. 
Inglis, 132. 

Inhabitants, French and Cana- 
dian, 89, 90, 154. 
Inhabitants, original, 10. 
Institution for blind, 132. 



224 



Institution for deaf and dumb, 

132. 
Intendant, 35, 36, 67. 
Intermediate district, 30, 31. 
Internal improvements, 140, 141, 

142, 143, 170, 171. 
Iowa, 44, 139, 186. 
Ireland, 185. 
Iron, 54. 
Iron rails, 145. 
Iroquois, 48, 61, 62. 
Isabella and Ferdinand, 12. 
Iturbide, 183. 
Jackson, 136, 139. 
Jackson Park, 208. 
Jacksonville, 128, 132, 140, 143, 

212. 
James, 104. 
James I, 31. 
Jarrot,^156. 
Jefferson, 90, 146. 
Jefferson Barracks, 138. 
Jesuit, map, 44. 
Jesuit Relation, 35, 44. 
Jesuits, 47, 67. 
Johnston, 193. 
Joliet, 172. 

Jolliet, 24, 37, 41, 47, 48, 53. 
Jolliet & Marquette route, 34. 
Jonesboro, 192. 
Journal, Kennedy's, 54, 55. 
Journal, Marquette's, 37, 42, 44. 
Judith, 153. 
Jurisdiction, concurrent, 110, 111, 

119. 
Kankakee river, 54. 
Kaskaskia, 41, 48, 49, 50, 51, 55, 

62, 66, 68, 69, 73, 76, 78, 79, 84, 

110, 113, 124, 185, 214. 
Kaskaskia church, 49. 
Kaskaskia mound, 41. 
Kaskaskia, new, 51. 
Kaskaskia river, 41, 43, 48, 50, 

142. 
Kaskaskias, 40, 41, 43, 49, 50, 90, 

199. 
Kennebec, 147. 
Kennedy's Journal, 54, 55. 
Kentucky, 78, 103, 107, 111, 152. 



Kentucky river, 96. 

Keokuk, 136. 

Kickapoos, 37. 

Kidd, 84. 

Kirtland, 175. 

Knowledge, 92, 130. 

Koerner, 112. 

Kuilka, 48. 

Labor statistics, 56. 

LaCharboniere, 54. 

Lacroix, 69. 

LaFayette, 124, 185. 

LaHontan, 45. 

Lake Dauphin, 48. 

Lake Front. 209. 

Lake Illinois, 49. 

Lake Michigan, 41, 47, 48, 49, 91, 

106, 109, 110, 116, 133, 141, 18L 
Lake of the Woods, 91, 109. 
Lake Peoria, 41. 
Lakes, 61, 123, 124. 
Lakes, Great, 23, 35, 77. 
Lake Superior, 35, 44, 47. 
Laon, 47. 
LaSalle, 35, 37, 49, 53, 55, 57, 55, 

60, 61, 62, 63, 172. 
Latter Day Saints, 175. 
Laudonniere, 24. 
LaVantum, 48. 
LaVille de Maillet, 76. 
Law, 64. 

Law, fugitive slave, 156. 
Lawrenceville, 142. 
Leaflets, Old South, 31. 
Lebanon, 128, 143, 213. 
LeClercq, 42, 45, 49. 57. 
Lee, 90, 193. 

Legislature, proroguing of, 196. 
Length of state, 112. 
Le Rocher, 46, 62. 
LeSueur, 52. 
Lexington, 211. 
Liberator, 183. 
Liberty of the press, 149. 
Library, Historical, 207. 
License, high, 204. 
Lillard, 96. 

Lincoln, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194. 
Liquors, 204. 



225 



Little Michilmakinack river, 94, 

95. 
Little river, 95. 
Little Wabash river, 142. 
Logan, 195, 202, 205. 
London, 170. 
London company, 30, 31. 
Louis XIV, 36, 53, 61. 
Louisiana, 50, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 

66, 67, 68, 70, 73, 184. 
Louisiana, description of, 48, 54, 

57. 
Louisiana, map of, 60. 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 

212. 
Lovejoy, 147, 192. 
Lovejoy's assassination, 145, 146, 

156. 
McKendree college, 128, 213. 
Mackinac, 36. 
Mackinaw, 61, 143. 
Mackinaw river, 55. 
McLaug-hlin, 57. 
McLean, 115. 
Macomb, 132, 143. 
Madison, 103, 106. 
Magazine, Powder, 78. 
Mail route, Great Western, 142, 

144. 
Maine, 147. 
Maine, the, 210. 
Makarty, 68. 
Maloney, 213. 
Manchester, 175. 
Man of Illinois, 146. 
Map, county of Illinois, 82. 
Map, English claim, 17, 30, 72. 
Map, French claim, 26, 34. 
Map, Illinois confederacy, 40. 
Map, Illinois Territory, 102. 
Map, Indiana Territory, 99. 
Map, Jesuit, 44. 
Map, Louisiana, 60. 
Map, New France, 60. 
Map, Northwest, 76, 88, 94, 97. 
Map, Pike county, 117. 
Map, Randolph county, 97, 99, 

102. 



Map, St. Clair county, 94, 97, 99, 

102. 
Map, Spanish claim, 13, 22. 
Map, Smith's state, 116. 
Marest, 43, 50. 
Margry, 57, 70. 
Maroni, 175. 
Marquette, 24, 35, 36, 37, 41, 44, 

47, 49, 51, 199. 
Marquette & Jolliet route, 34. 
Marquette's Journal, 37, 42, 44. 
Married women, 195. 
Marietta, 92. 

Marshall, Chief Justice, 10. 
Maryland, 111. 
Mascoutens, 37, 54. 
Mason, 37, 43, 52, 62, 79, 83, 95. 
Massac, Fort, 70, 76, 95. 
Massachusetts, 89. 
Massachusetts Bay, 30. 
Matagorda Bay, 62. 
Matteson, 189. 

Mausoleum, 194. ' 

Meachelle, 46. 
Mead, 211. 
Melendez, 22, 24. 
Membre', 42, 45, 48, 53, 57, 62. 
Men, superior, 42. 
Menard, 111, 112, 115. 
Meredosia, 143, 171. 
Mesnard, 36. 
Messenger, 181. 
Metchigamea, 40, 41, 44. 
Metchigamis, 43. 
Methodist missionary, 96. 
Mexican War, 182, 183, 186, 190. 
Mexico, 183, 184, 186. 
Mexico, gulf of, 61, 62, 63, 124, 

173. 
Mexico, New, 63. 
Miami country, 53, 54, 61. 
Miami river. Great, 91. 
Miamis, 37. 
Michigan, 41, 83. 
Michigan, Lake, 41, 47, 48, 49, 9l, 

106, 109, 110, 116, 133, 141, 181. 
Michigan University, 212. 
Middle state, 91. 
Migration of Indians to southern 

Illinois, 50. 



226 



Miles, 152. 

Military tract, 108. 

Military tribunal, 73. 

Mines, 54, 56. 

Mining, 65. 

Minnesota, 186. 

Missilimakinac, 45. 

Mission, Immaculate Conception, 

49, 50. 
Mission, St. Esprit, 34, 44. 
Mission, St. Ignace, 34, 36, 37, 47, 

62, 199. 
Missionaries, 35. 
Missionary station, pioneer, 36. 
Mississippi, 67. 
Mississippi regiment, 190. 
Mississippi river, 24, 37, 41, 42, 

43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 61, 62, 63, 

68, 73, 77, 84, 89, 91, 95, 108, 109, 

110, 123, 129, 135, 136, 137, 138, 

139, 142, 144, 145, 172, 188. 

Encroachments of, 48, 50, 78. 

Mouth of, 61. 
Mississippi scheme, 64. 
Missouri, 44, 84, 121, 122, 135, 155, 

175, 176. 177, 208. 
Missouri compromise, 192. 
Missouri Historical Society, 70. 
Missouri river, 63. 
Mobbing of press, 149, 150. 
Monroe, 90. 
Monroe, Fortress, 139. 
Monterey, 186. 
Montreal, 34, 35. 
Monument, Bond, 111. 
Monument, first fort, 57. 
Monument, Menard, 112. 
Moore, 84, 153. 
Morality, 92, 130. 
Morelos, 183. 

Mormons, 174, 175, 177, 179, 180. 
Moses, 41, 83, 105, 123, 171, 182, 

199. 
Mound, Cahokia, 42. 
Mound, Kaskaskia, 41. 
Mount Carmel, 143. 
Mount Sterling, 143. 
Mulattoes, 119, 126. 



My Own Times, 103, 105, 108, 120, 

144, 156, 181. 
Nauvoo, 176, 177, 178, 179. 
Nauvoo legion, 176. 
Negroes, 69, 119, 126, 189. 
Negro lynched, 149. 
Negro servitude, 153. 
New Brunswick, 19. 
New Chartres, 69. 
New Design, 96. 
New England, 182. 
Newfoundland, 19, 27. 
New France, 27, 35, 47, 50, 53, 61. 

63, 64. 67. 

Map of, 60. 
New Kaskaskia, 51. 
New Mexico, 63. 
New Orleans, 66, 68. 
New party, 189. 
Newport News, 211. 
Newspapers, 214, 215. 
New vessel, 61. 
New voyages to North America, 

45. 
New York, 89, 175, 209. 
Neyon de Villiers, 68. 
Normal, 131, 132. 
Normal, eastern, 132. 
Normal, northern, 132. 
Normal, southern, 132. 
Normal, state, 132. 
Normal university, 131, 132, 190. 
Normal, western, 132. 
North America, 23, 77. 

Savages of, 45. 
North Carolina, 27. 
Northern Cross railroad, 143. 
Northern Normal, 132. 
Northwest, 83, 85, 90, 106, 108. 

Conquest of, 74, 76, 77, 79, 83. 

Map of, 76, 88, 94, 97. 
Northwestern Law School, 213. 
Northwest passage to China, 37. 
Northwest Territory, 88, 89, 94, 97, 

109, 153. 
Nova Scotia, 19. 
Observer, St. LK)uis, 148. 
Occupation, 65, 73. 
O'Fallon, 128. 



227 



Officers' quarters, 58. 

Oglesby, 197. 201. 205. 208. 

Ohio, 83, 92, 96, 175, 208. 

Ohio river, 63, 77, 89, 90, 91, 95, 
96, 109. 110, 111, 119, 145, 188. 

Olden cemetery, 51. 

Olden Illinois settlement, 51. 

Old South Leaflets, 31. 

Ontario, 213. 

Ordinance of 1787, 90, 109, 122, 
130, 153, 181. 

Orient, 36. 

Origin, 186. 

Original inhabitants, 10. 

Ottawa, 138. 

Ottumwa. 186. 

Oumamis, 45. 

Outagamins, 45. 

Palmer, 198. 

Palmyra, 175. 

Palo Alto, 186. 

Panama canal, 173. 

Papers, division of, 69. 

Pardon of Hay Market defend- 
ants, 208. 

Paris, 73, 143. 

Paris, customs of, 64. 

Paris of the West, 50, 183. 

Paris, treaty of, 73. 

Parkman, 35, 37, 49, 62. 

Pasturage, 66. 

Patent for Virginia, 30. 

Patent letters, 63. 

Patent of Louis XIV, 53. 

Peace conference, 36, 195. 

Peck, 108, 128, 141, 171, 199. 

Peck's seminary, 128, 181. 

Penitentiary, 126, 133, 190. 

Pennsylvania, 89, 91. 

Penobscot, 147. 

Peoria, 43, 57, 65, 76, 107, 140, 143. 

Peoria Chapter, D. A. R., 57. 

Peoria Indian, 74. 

Peoria Lake, 41. 
Peorias, 40, 41, 43, 61. 
Periodicals, 214. 

Perrot, 36. 
Philadelphia, 20L 

Piggott, 84. 



Pioneer dead, removal of, 51. 
Pioneer History, Reynolds,' 43, 95, 

108. 
Pioneer missionary station, 36. 
Piracy, 184. 
Pisticoui river, 54, 55. 
Pittsburg, 145, 202. 
Plymouth company, 30, 31. 
Political discussion, 189. 
Ponce de Leon, 22, 23, 24. 
Pontiac, 43, 73. 74. 
Pontiac, assassination of, 46, 73. 
Pope, 109, 110, 177. 
Population, 95, 103, 113, 116, 128, 
174, 187, 191, 198, 199, 200, 202, 
207, 211. 
Population of ancient Illinois vil- 
lage. 48, 49. 
Population of Illinois confeder- 
acy, 42. 
Porto Rico, 210, 211. 

Possession, 65, 73. 
Possession, actual, 24, 

Possession, constructive, 24, 31. 

Possessions, French, 68. 

Post, fortified, 58. 

Post Vincennes, 91, 102, 103, 109. 

Pottawatomie chief, 46. 

Pottawatomis, 136. 

Powder, 45. 

Powder magazine, 78. 

Powell, 132. 

Prairie du Chien, 129, 138. 

Prairie du Pont, 68. 

Prairie du Rocher, 66, 77, 84. 

Precious stones, 64. 

Press, liberty of the, 149. 
Mobbing of, 149, 150. 

Primitive courts, 84. 

Prophet's Town, 106, 137. 

Proroguing of legislature, 196. 

Protestantism, 96. 

Prothonotary, 69. 

Public works, commissioners of, 
141. 

Purgatory swamp, 142. 

Quebec, 34, 35, 36, 47, 60. 

Quincy, 143, 205. 

Raab, 132. 



228 



Radebaugh, 182. 

Railroad, first, 144. 

Railroads, 133, 143, 144, 145, 171, 

172, 187. 188, 204. 
Rails, iron, 145. 
Randolph County, map of, 97, 99, 

102. 
Rangers, 106. 
Reapportionment, 203. 
Recollects, 53. 
Record B, 121. 
Record C. 121. 
Record of baptisms, 49. 
Recovery, Fort, 99, 103. 
Red Bird, 129. 
Reform movements, 201. 
Register, hog-hide, 69. 
Registrar of the bench, 69. 
Registre des Insinuations, 69. 
Relation of 1670-1671, 35, 44. 
Religion, 92, 130. 
Removal of capital, 113, 140, 174, 

197. 
Removal of pioneer dead, 51. 
Renault, 65, 122, 153. 
Renault grant, 66. 
Repeal of incorporation of Illinois 

& Michigan Canal Company, 

127. 
Repeal of Missouri compromise, 

192. 
Republican party, 192. 
Resaca de la Palma, 186. 
Revenue laws, 202. 
Revolution, American, 78, 83, 92. 
Reynolds, 43, 44, 95, 96, 103, 105, 

106, 108, 120, 121, 123, 133, 137, 

144, 156, 181. 
Ribaut, 24. 
Ribourde, 53. 
Right of Indian, 10. 
Rights of man, 146. 
Rivers — 

Bad Axe, 138. 

Big Muddy, 142. 

Chicago, 49, 106, 199. 

DesMoines, 44. 

DesPlaines, 49. 

Fox, 37. 55, 135. 



Great, 35, 37, 44. 
Great Miami, 91. 
Great Wabash, 142. 
Illinois, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 
49, 52, 54, 55, 95, 107, 108, 116, 
133, 135, 142, 172, 199. 
Kankakee, 54. 

Kaskaskia, 41, 43, 48, 50, 142. 
Kentucky, 96. 
Little, 95. 

Little Michilmakinack, 94, 95. 
Little Wabash, 142. 
Mackinaw, 55. 

Mississippi, 24, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44, 
45, 47, 48, 50, 61, 62, 63, 68, 73, 
77, 84, 89, 91. 95, 108, 109, 110, 
123, 129, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 
142, 144, 145, 172, 188. 
Encroachments of, 48, 50, 78. 
Mouth of, 61. 
Missouri, 63. 
Ohio, 63, 77, 89, 90, 91, 95, 96, 

109, 110, 111, 119, 145, 188. 
Pisticoui, 54, 55. 
Rock, 108, 136, 137. 
St. Lawrence, 27, 35. 
Trinity, 62. 
Vermilion, 55, 141. 
Wabash, 91, 95, 103, 106, 109, 

110. 
Wisconsin, 37, 45, 135, 138. 
Roads, 130. 

Rocheblave, 74, 79, 84. 
Rock Island, 108, 136, 142. 
Rock river, 108. 136, 137. 
Rock river country, 108, 136, 137, 

142. 
Rock, Starved. 46, 49, 62. 
Rock Spring seminary, 128, 181. 
Route, Marquette & JoUiet, 34. 
Royal India company, 64, 65, 66, 

67, 153. 
Russell, 107. 
Russell, Camp, 108. 
Rutherford, 84. 
Sacs and Foxes, 108, 129, 135. 
Ste. Anne, 66. 
St. Augustine, 24. 
St. Ange de Belle Rive, 67, 68, 73. 



229 



St. Clair, 67, 68, 92. 

St. Clair County, map of, 94, 97, 
99, 102. 

St. Cosme, 52, 62. 

St. Esprit mission, 34, 44. 

Ste. Genevieve, 68, 69. 

St. Ignace, 34, 36, 37, 47. 62, 199. 

St. Lawrence river, 27, 35. 

St. Louis, 68, 69, 70, 74, 112, 124, 
135, 138, 144, 209. 

St. Louis Chapter, D. A. R., 74. 

St. Louis, Fort, 62. 

St. Louis Observer, 148. 

St. Mary's of the Falls, 36. 

St. Phillipe, 66, 69. 

St. Vincents, 90. 

Salem, 143. 

Sale of bonds, 170. 

Saline Reserves, 126. 

Saltillo, 186. 

Salt Lake, 180. 

Santa Anna, 183, 184. 

Sanitary district, 207. 

San Jacinto, 184. 

Saucier, 78. 

Saussier, 78. 

Sault Sainte Marie, 36. 

Savages of North America, 45. 

Savannah, 142. 

School lands, 127, 130, 131. 

Schools, 92, 124, 127, 130, 131, 132, 
133, 140, 187, 189. 

Scotland, 92. 

Scott, 70. 

Sea kings, 12. 

Sea to sea, 31. 

Secretary of State, 131, 

Secretary of Treasury, 115. 

Secretary of War, 43. 

Secret treaty, 73. 

Seely, 96. 

Seer stone, 175. 

Seminary, 130. 

Seminary, Rock Spring, 128, 181. 

Sentence of Hay Market defend- 
ants, 206. 

Separate property of married 
women, 195. 

Servants, 119. 



Servitude, negro, 153. 

Settlement, olden Illinois, 51. 

Settlements, French, 79. 

Settlers, 84, 106. 188. 

Settlers, French, 66. 

Sham duel, 120. 

Shawneetown, 114, 124, 140, 180. 

Shea, 42, 45, 48, 49, 54, 57. 

Shelbyville, 142, 143. 

Shenandoah valley, 186. 

Sheridan, Fort, 211. 

Shields, 182, 184, 185, 186. 

Short, 120. 

Shurtleff college, 128. 

Sidney, 143. 

Sioux, 138. 

Slade, 132. 

Slate, 54. 

Slave law, fugitive, 156. 

Slavery, 69, 91, 122, 126, 153, 156, 
197. 

Slaves, 65, 69, 119, 153, 156. 

Slaves, French, 156. 

Smith. 95, 116, 175, 176, 177, 178, 
179. 

Snively, 214. 

Snyder, 78. 

Society, Chicago Historical, 83, 
182. 

Society, Illinois State Historical, 
70, 171, 211, 214. 

Society, Missouri Historical, 70, 

Soldiers, 195. 

Soldiers & Sailors Home, 205. 

Southerly bend, 91, 109, 110. 

Southern Hotel, 74. 

Southern Illinois Normal, 132. 

Spain, 12, 23, 24, 73, 210. 

Spanish, 35. 

Spanish claim, map of, 13, 22. 

Spanish commandant, 84. 

Spanish, English and French dis- 
coveries, 19. 

Spanish territory, 84. 

Springfield, 112, 140, 143, 170, ITl, 
174, 177, 194, 197, 210. 

Special legislation, 198. 

Starved Rock, 46, 49, 62. 



230 



state Bank, 113, 123, 133, 140, 180, 

187. 
State, eastern, 91. 
State, middle, 91. 
State, western, 91, 109. 
State Historical Library, 207, 212. 
State Historical Society, 70, 211, 

212. 
State House, 197. 
State Normal, 132. 
State of Illinois, 109, 110, 111, 112. 
Station, first, 47. 
Station, pioneer missionary, 36. 
Statue of Menard, 115. 
Steamboats, 105. 
Sterling, 73. 
Stevens, 108, 139. 
Stillman, 137. 
Stillman's Run, 137. 
Stones, precious, 64.. 
Strikes, 202. 
Stuart, 120. 
Stuve, 171. 
Superintendant of Schools, 131, 

132. 
Superior, Lake, 35, 44, 47. 
Superior men, 42. 
Surveyor, 213. 
Swing, 200. 
Swiss, 112. 
Talon, 36. 
Tamaroa, 42. 
Tammarois, 40, 41, 42, 52. 
Tampico, 186. 
Tanner, 210. 
Taylor, 108, 138. 
Taxation for schools, 127. 
Tecumseh, 106. 
Terre Haute, 143. 
Territorial record 1809-1818, 104. 
Territory, Illinois, 102, 103. 
Territory, Indian, 44. 
Territory, Indiana, 43, 96, 99, 103. 
Territory, Northwest, 88, 89, 94, 

97, 109, 153. 
Territory, Spanish, 84. 
Texas, 184. 
Thieves, cunning, 46. 
Thievish. 45. 



Thomas, 103, 144. 

Thread, 67. 

Three Rivers, 35. 

Three R's, 131. 

Tippecanoe, 106. 

Title, chain of, 6, 7, 9, 10 

Title page, 1. 

Tobacco, Brazil, 45. 

Todd, 83, 85. 

Todd's Record, 83. 

Tons of coal, 56. 

Tonti, 44, 53, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63. 

Topographical Description, 

Hutchins', 43, 54. 
Tract, Military, 108. 
Traders, French, 55. 
Traders, fur, 35. 
Transfer, actual, 73. 
Transportation, 204. 
Treasury, Secretary of, 115. 
Treaty of Paris, 73. 
Treaty, secret, 73. 
Trial by jury, 73. 
Tribe northwest of Ohio, 10. 
Tribes of Peoria, 40, 41, 43, 61. 
Tribes of the West, 31, 35, 36. 
Tribes, western, 73. 
Tribunal, military, 73. 
Trifles, 46. 
Trinity river, 62. 
Ultimate extinction, 192. 
Union College of Law, 213. 
United States, 85, 89, 90, 91, 106. 

108, 109, 124, 135, 136, 178, 183, 

184, 186, 199, 203, 204. 
University, 130. 

University, Normal, 131, 132, 190. 
University of Illinois, 132. 
Upper Alton, 128, 143. 
Urbana, 132. 
Utica, 37, 48, 55. 
Vandalia, 113, 140, 142, 170. 
Vera Cruz, 183, 186. 
Vermilion river, 55, 141. 
Vessel, new, 61. 
Verrazani, 26, 27. 
Versailles, 65. 
Vicksburg, 83. 
Victoria, 186. 



231 



Vigo, 79. 

Village of Cahokia, 42. 

Village of Illinese, 45. 

Village of Illinois, ancient, 46. 

Village of Pike County, 116, 117, 

199. 
Vincennes, 69, 76, 79, 103, 107, 142. 
Vincennes, Post, 91, 102, 103, 109. 
Virginia, 31, 74, 78, 79. 83, 84, 85, 

89, 90, 91, 92, 111, 182, 195. 
Virginia, patent for, 30. 
Virginia settlers, 84. 
Wabash river, 91, 95, 103, 106, 109, 

110. 
Wabash, Great, 142. 
Wabash, Little, 142. 
Wandering, 45. 
Wallace, 70. 
War, Black Hawk, 108, 128, 134, 

135. 
War, Civil, 193. 195. 
War, Cuban, 210. 
War, French- Indian, 68, 92. 
War, Mexican, 182, 183, 186, 190. 
War of 1812, 106. 
War, Winnebago, 129. 
Warsaw, 143. 
War, Secretary of, 43. 
War with Spain, 210. 
Washings of river, 50. 
Washington, 139, 195, 209. 
Water-way, 123, 172, 173, 203. 
Wells, 78. 
Wesley City, 57. 

West, Company of the, 64, 65. 153. 
West, Discovery of the Great, 35, 

49, 62. 



Western mail route. Great, 142, 

144. 
Western Normal, 132. 
Western state, 91, 109. 
Western tribes, 73. 
West, Great, 180. 
West, Indian tribes of the, 31, 35, 

36. 
West Indies, 153. 
West, Paris of the, 50. 
Wheat, 67. 
Wheaton, 10. 
Wheeler, 57. 

White men, advent of, 37. 
Whites, first, 47. 
Whiteside, 137. 
Width of state, 112. 
Wife, Rocheblave's, 84. 
Williams, 73. 

Winnebagos, 129, 136, 138. 
Winnebago War, 129. 
Winsor, 41, 44, 49. 
Wisconsin, 37, 83, 109, 110, 112, 

129, 181. 182. 
Wisconsin river, 37, 45, 135, 138. 
Witchcraft, 95. 

Witnesses, 126. ^ 

Woelk, 41. 
Wood, 190, 191. 

Woods, Lake of the, 91, 109. 
Wool, 67. 
World's Columbian Exposition, 

207, 208, 209. 
World's Fair, 209. 
Yates, 195, 212. 
Young, 179. 



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